The Brawl: What they are saying

Reaction to Wednesday’s second inning dust-up between the Rays and the Yankees that was touched off when Shelley Duncan of the Yankees slid hard into Rays Akinori Iwamura, catching the second baseman in his crotch with his left spike.

Rays manager JOE MADDON

“Absolutely, no question, it was a blatant attempt to hurt Aki. It was setup, premeditated, all of the above. I don’t know what the difference between that and a high stick in hockey, but it was that bad.”

“What you saw today was the definition of a dirty play. There's no room for that in our game. It's contemptible, it's wrong, it's borderline criminal. And I cannot believe they did that.”

“That’s what you don’t want kids to see. That’s what you don’t want to represent your organization. I never want to see our guys do that. I’ve always held (the Yankees) in very high esteem. They are one of the classier groups in all of professional sports, not just baseball. To me, that’s beneath them.”

On right fielder Jonny Gomes running to Aki’s defense:
“That was a beautiful thing how the guys all came together at that moment. We’re moving in the right direction. I don’t want to see it done because of an incident like that. When you’re faced with those moments, you have to react like we did. We had no choice. We had to react like we did.”

YANKEE MANAGER JOE GIRARDI

“I like Shelley’s aggressiveness. I like aggressive baseball. That’s the way I as brought up. But I don’t like dirty baseball.”
Giradi was referring to the play in which Elliot Johnson crashed into Yankees catcher Francisco Cervelli last Saturday.

RAYS RIGHT FIELDER JONNY GOMES

“I saw him go hard into Aki. What it looked like to me was he was trying to hurt Aki. He went in high. High to me is shin high. He was right by his knee. He landed on the base after he hit Aki. I just think he tried inflict some pain on Aki.”

On why he defended Aki:
“That just comes from second nature. I was taught from T-ball all the way up to have your teammate’s back. With that trying to hurt a teammate, I just reacted how I reacted. I wasn’t really trying to get a shot in on him. I probably could have done a lot of things worse. But it is a baseball field. There are fans and kids watching. I just had to let him know that’s not going to fly with me on the field.”

On Duncan:
“I played against him. He a prospect. He’s trying to make a name for himself. With stuff like that, he’s doing a pretty good job. I’ve never played for the Yankees. I’ve played against them and watched them growing up. I know that’s not the Yankee way. Those guys are athletes. They’re clean shaven. You rarely see Yankees doing stuff like that.”

On the Rays playing clean
“I don’t think we ever wanted to get pushed around. We go out and battle. In every situation we’ve been in, we’ve come out in the right. We’ve done the right thing. Carl Crawford taking out a catcher. Elliot Johnson taking out a catcher. The game has been seeing that for 100 years. I don’t think we’ve done anything in the wrong.”

On playing hard in spring training
“We owe it to the game. We owe it to the people who paid for tickets to play the game hard. That’s what Carl Crawford and Elliot Johnson did. We owe it to the people who paid for tickets and the people who paid the game before us to play the game hard. That’s how the game’s played, spring training or not.”

YANKEES FIRST BASEMAN SHELLEY DUNCAN

“I'm pretty sure the spikes weren't that high. They were pretty much going straight at the glove. I've done it before. Never had a reaction like that.'”

On what precipitated the incident
“What happened the other day set the tone, showing us how hard they're going to play. You see their intensity level, you try to match it. We need to wake up a little bit. We need to play hard as well.''

On if he was surprised by the reaction of Gomes:
“I was. I didn't expect that. I really didn't. I didn't know what was happening for a while. I saw everyone running around. I was baffled. I didn't know why they'd have such a reaction.”

YANKEES COACH KEVIN LONG

On Duncan’s slide
“He went into second base. What's he supposed to do? Stand up? You guys saw him go in high. I saw him go into second base. I don't have a problem (with it).”