Zim fires back at Girardi

ROGER MOONEY
rmooney@bradenton.com

ST. PETERSBURG – One day after Yankee manager Joe Girardi called out the Rays for being too aggressive on the base paths during spring training, Rays senior baseball advisor Don Zimmer fired back at Girardi.

“I think something was made big out of something that was played right,” Zimmer said Sunday morning while sitting in the dugout at Al Lang Field.

That “something” was the play which occurred in the ninth inning of Saturday’s game at Legends Field when Rays minor league second baseman Elliot Johnson collided with Yankees minor league catcher Francisco Cervelli, causing Cervelli to fracture his right wrist, an injury that will force the Yankees top catching prospect to miss the next eight to 10 weeks.

“I was dumbfounded,” Zimmer said. “Of all people, I mean Girardi’s a tough guy, a tough catcher. I don’t know what spring training has got anything to do with it. You play the game right.”

Girardi’s post-game comments Saturday centered on the fact that is was a spring training game and such an aggressive play by Johnson crossed a line.

“I want you to play hard. I want you to hustle, but to me it's not the time to do it,” Girardi told reporters in Tampa on Sunday morning. “It's just disheartening, it's spring training, I just don't understand. I told all my players to play hard, but when you do something like that you take your chances that you will get someone hurt."

Zimmer, who spent eight seasons as the Yankees bench coach before joining the Rays, disagreed.

“To me, if I’m trying to break up a double play in spring training, I’m going to do the same thing in spring training as I would in the regular season,” Zimmer said. “I’m not trying to hurt anybody. Our guy was not trying to hurt their catcher.”

Before leaving for the hospital to have his wrist set, Cervelli told reporters that he didn’t think it was a dirty play.

Johnson didn’t think so, either.

“I was not trying to hurt anybody,” he said Sunday morning. “If I was safe and he didn’t get hurt, it would have been no big deal.”

Zimmer said he was “dumbfounded” by Girardi’s reaction.

“I’m talking about a guy who’s like a son to me. I can’t believe that he went after it the way he did. That’s not Joe Girardi. And being a catcher on top of it,” Zimmer said. “You block the plate. If I slide into him and break a leg, nothing is said. Instead of breaking my leg I bowl him over and it’s not the right play? Well, to me it’s the right play, spring training or no spring training. Play the game the right way. To me, our kid played it the way he though it was right, and I think it was right.”

Rays manager Joe Maddon said after Saturday’s game that he liked Johnson’s aggressive base running and stood by those comments Sunday.

“Just like I said (Saturday), it was a good hard baseball play,” Maddon said. “We have to play the game one way all the time. That’s the way we do things. It’s really unfortunate that kid got hurt, because I read his comments and I thought I’d like to have him on my team at some point. The kid said it was a hard baseball play and it looked like Elliot Johnson is trying to make the baseball team here. I thought was beautiful, and I really respect that kid for saying that. Nobody wants to hurt anyone under those circumstances, that was not the point, but that was a great comment from that player and I respect him for that.”

Johnson, Maddon and the Rays were roasted in the New York media. Sunday’s back page headlines screamed:

“Crash & Burn.”
“Damn You!”
“Outrage at the plate.”

“This does not deserve any legs,” Maddon said when asked for a reaction to Girardi’s comments. “It was an issue that occurred (Saturday) in a game. It was a hard play. The issue was based on whether he should do that in spring training or not, so it’s a philosophical difference.”

The Rays play the Yankees three more times this spring, including Wednesday at Al Lang, and meet each other 18 times during the regular season. A play like Saturday’s could fester and lead to further incidents between the teams.
Girardi told reports Sunday morning that he thought of talking with Maddon, but will think about it for a few days.

Maddon said he is receptive to a conversation with Girardi.

“Honestly, I really haven’t even thought about that,” Maddon said. “I like Joe. I’ve always liked Joe. If he’d like to have a conversation, god, I’d like to talk about politics, global warming, I’m good with a lot of topics in a daily basis. I like iTunes. I download some stuff off iTunes. I like different restaurants. I like red wine. I have a lot of different ways I can go a conversation with.”