By William Coppola: Contributing Writer Bronx Chronicle Sports
What would you do if you had a pitcher who had just thrown 99 pitches and is one out away from a three hit, eight strikeout, no walk, one nothing shutout? Well if you are Tampa Bay Rays manager Kevin Cash, you remove your pitcher and bring in someone from your overworked bullpen to get the last out.
Sounds crazy to some and quite logical to the new generation of baseball fans and todays analytical, saber-metric, mumbo jumbo managers in major league baseball. All of that did in fact happen Sunday in a game between the Rays and Mariners on the west coast.
The Ray’s pitcher was lefty Ryan Yarbrough who was looking to become the first Tampa Bay pitcher to pitch a complete game shutout since Matt Andriese went the distance on May 14, 2016. Wait, let me get my abacus out and see if my math is correct. Yup, that’s almost four years since the Rays have had a complete game shutout! A team that has had a rich history of top tier major league pitchers for years.
Excuse me for being such a dinosaur but enough is enough with all of this over thinking by these geniuses. What has happened to our game? Yarbrough was not tired, injured, hungry or missing his mommy! How would you feel if your manager and pitching coach, Kyle Snyder, decided that they did not have enough confidence in you after retiring 26 batters and they felt that you could not get one more batter out?
This is so ridiculous and goes against everything competitive and challenging sports has been since Caveman first swung a club and hit a rock. I miss my dad but am so glad he is not here to see all of this nonsense. Men raised their sons to be tougher than this before “everyone gets a trophy” youth sports became the norm. I’m talking about Cash here not having any guts, not Yarbrough.
Sure I should be talking about the Yankees or Mets today but this just drives me NUTS! Instead of being able to see a pitching gem completed by this guy, we are left with a sour taste in our mouth. Having to settle for a woosie move by a manager who like many others in professional baseball don’t have the guts to leave it up to his pitcher and the other eight players to finish the game.
What kind of generation of men are we raising? I am so tired of seeing from 18 year old High School players asking “Mommy did you bring my water” to major league players being treated like powder puffs in many situations.
Ok I feel better now getting that off my chest. Have to go, my wife just told me my breakfast is ready and I don’t want to get in trouble if it gets cold.
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