The Yankees aren’t feeding the trolls

By Craig CalcaterraFeb 29, 2012, 2:08 PM EDT
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As D.J. noted last night, yesterday Bobby Valentine tried to troll the Yankees, talking smack about the famous flip play from the 2001 ALDS and about the famous Jason Varitek-A-Rod fight.

Today the Yankees were asked about it.  And they weren’t gonna get down on Bobby V’s level.  Here’s Jeter:

“… who cares? I mean, why are we talking about this, really?” Jeter said. “He must be bored over there, huh? I don’t understand.”

And here’s A-Rod:

“I’m not going to win many battles here when it comes to words, especially against Bobby,” Rodriguez said. “But I will tell you this: I’ve got my new press secretary that should be landing in the next couple days – Reggie Jackson – so I’ll let him handle that.”

That’s the way to defuse these little petty controversies.  Just bore them to death.

And really: you’d think Valentine would want to set out to write his own chapter in the Yankees-Red Sox thing rather than try to rehash the old ones.

Juan Soto went back in time to homer against the Yankees

Jim McIsaac/Getty Images
By Bill BaerJun 18, 2018, 5:27 PM EDT
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On Monday evening, the Yankees and Nationals resumed a game from May 15 that was suspended due to inclement weather. The game was suspended after the top of the sixth inning with a 3-3 tie. That, and the next day’s game, were rescheduled for today, a month and three days later.

An interesting thing happened in that month and three days: Juan Soto made his major league debut. Soto, at the time of his promotion, was the minor league leader in home runs. He took his first major league at-bat on May 20, pinch-hitting in a game against the Dodgers. He struck out. He got his first start the next day against the Padres, going 2-for-4 with a home run and three RBI.

When Soto stepped to the plate on Monday evening in the bottom of the sixth inning, technically he is considered to have done so on May 15. As fate would have it, he absolutely obliterated a 97 MPH fastball from Chad Green for a two-run home run. So he homered in his major league debut after having already made his major league debut. Does Soto have a DeLorean? On May 15, Soto was batting third for Double-A Harrisburg. He went 3-for-4 (all singles) with an RBI.

Michael Kay, citing the Elias Sports Bureau on the YES broadcast, said that it still considers Soto’s debut as having occurred on May 20, but he will have an asterisk denoting May 15’s suspended game. His first major league hit and RBI are still considered to have come on his three-run homer against the Padres. So there’s that.