NEW YORK, NY – While some publications might panic when their starting columnist is M.I.A. for the MTM Morning Edition, we’re almost happy to fill in for The [Absent Minded] Public Professor… almost. Why? We’re almost happy because we can vent our disgust with yesterday’s abomination in The Bronx. Flipping back between the Mets’ very tall soft-tossers (Young & Rausch) shutting down Jose “Bunter” Reyes‘ Miami Trainwreck, and the Orioles using Phil Hughes for batting practice, we got angry. Angry Ward angry. If we in the stands, you’d have heard us screaming, “Fire Joe Girardi!” like we were at our television… Which we can only imagine has our neighbors angry with Jittery Joe as well. They sure seemed angry in the elevator.
Joe Girardi has forgotten that he was a catcher. He must have. We say that because we still catch – and manage – our baseball team, The Harlem Shaskys. And as catchers everywhere will verify, we hate pitching changes. Especially multiple pitching changes in an inning. Pitching changes takes you out of your rhythm. They leave the players chatting and checking out talent in stands. They make for long beer lines, empty seats and a collective yawn throughout the ballpark.
Now multiply that by 5.
That’s what Jittery Joe Girardi did in making 5 pitching changes in the 8th inning of a 8-3 loss to Lord Baltimore’s Orioles. It was an abomination to the point that the rule needs to be changed. Call it The Girardi Rule. (Not to be confused with The Shiraldi Principle). No manager, outside of injury, can make more than 3 pitching changes per inning. Any pitcher taken out for injury, must miss the next two games. This will keep pitchers from faking injuries.
And how about the lack of confidence Girardi is showing in his pitchers? These guys made the majors getting people out. They are special. Leave a guy in for crissakes and let him do what he’s there to do. Did we mention that the Yanks were 52-33 at the All Star break? They are 76-57 now. That’s a record of 24-24 since… His formula isn’t working.
Maybe it was just a case of Joe Girardi having too many Dunkin Ice Caramels. We don’t care. He sucked the life out of his catcher, his team and most importantly – the fans. And he does this all the time. So, let’s stop this nonsense and… Fire Joe Girardi.
