Bats, helmets and the Yankee double standard

Allow me to present two scenarios.

Player A: Gets a called third strike, disagrees with call, Drops some choice words, gets tossed, walks a couple steps, tosses a piece of equipment at umpire, hits umpire.

Player B: Gets a called third strike, disagrees with call. Drops bat, gets tossed, walks a few steps, turns and looks to see where umpire is, tosses piece of equipment at umpire, grazing umpire.

Player A, of course, is Delmon Young, the Devil Rays’ top prospect who is serving a 50-game suspension and denounced across the sporting world as a punk in need of anger management therapy.

Player B is Bernie Williams, Yankees player, who at least so far as received no suspension, been subjected to no national outrage, no anger management therapy and is out missing easy flies in big games against the Red Sox.

As we said a couple weeks ago, there sure seem to be different rules for Yankees. I compared Young to Clemens, who disgraced himself in the 2000 World Series by tossing a bat piece at innocent Mike Piazza. And I was mocked by people who pointed out that Clemens’ action was against another player, and not an authority figure.

Fair enough. Now let’s look at Bernie.

In a recent game against Boston with Yankee-killer Josh Beckett on the bump, Williams was called out on strikes to end the second inning.
Later in the game, Bernie went down swinging.

In his third at-bat, Williams was called out again. This time he dropped his bat at the plate in disgust, walked a few steps, peeked over his shoulder to make sure umpire Charlie Reliford was still there then chucked his helmet behind him.

The projectile bounced and either narrowly missed Reliford or brushed against him, depending on who you talk to.

There was some speculation that Williams would get penalized for his action, but nothing yet. You see, Bernie’s “the classy Yankee” – which is kind of like saying “the good herpes” – and was just blowing off some steam after a frustrating day at the plate in a big game against a top rival.

Seems to me that Delmon is getting penalized for A) having better aim, and B) not being a Yankee.

It’s the typical Yankee double standard! Heck, I’m surprised Reliford, the umpire, didn’t get suspended! How dare he call Bernie out on strikes. If Bernie didn’t swing at it, it was a ball, darn it! Doesn’t he know about the 26 championships? Gehrig? Mantle? Yankee pride?

Then again, after watching Bernie overrun that ball in the corner in the last game against the Sox, maybe the Yanks are getting penalized afterall by having to throw his carass out there in rightfield.

Of course, the Mets are having their own problems with umpires. First Paul Lo Duca gets into a little shouting match after umpire Angel Hernandez allegedly said that Jose Lima wasn’t getting calls because he’s not John Smoltz. He got tossed.

Then Duaner Sanchez got the boot after he plunked a Brewer after giving up back-to-back homers that tied the game. Willie Randolph pointed out that there’s no way his top middle man is going to intentionally put the winning run on base. He might have said it more colorfully, because he got run, too.

Fellow long-distance Mets fan Dan at Lone Star Mets pointed out that there's no way a Yankee pitcher would get tossed in that scenario. Heck,the bonked batter would probably get a warning for not getitng out of the way!