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Fight Night At Fenway
Just wanted to start things off by asking those who said yesterday that the Sox and Rays weren't a rivalry, what about now? I am well aware that the Rays and Red Sox will never be on the same level due to the Red Sox and Yankees rivalry but what makes that rivalry is the storied past. The Red Sox and Yankee rivalry could not be any more dead right now than Akinori Iwamura's right hook. Jeter could not hurt a fly, A-Rod and Manny are best friends, the rivalry only exists between the fans now.
But now you have the Red Sox and the Rays. It could not be any more blatant that these two teams simply do not like each other. What makes a rivalry is the competitiveness, one, and two would be the players dislike for one another. It goes without saying that the Red Sox and Rays do not respect each other like the Red Sox and Yankees do. As a matter of fact, there seems to be no resepct between these two teams at all. Respect is earned, not given.
As far as the fight is concerned, we all knew Coco was going to get thrown at, but who knew he would charge the mound? I could understand if Shields threw at his head, that's definitely something to get angry about because that is a career threatening retaliation. Coco got pegged in the leg and went out there and all hell broke loose. Jonny Gomes, arguably the biggest punk in Major League baseball was throwing haymakers at Coco Crisp who was being held down by Navarro. Gomes, you're hitting .222 buddy, take a hike.
Next to throw some punches in on the mugging of Coco Crisp was Akinori Iwamura. To be honest, my mother throws harder punches than that. Then came Carl Crawford. To be honest, I lost a lot of respect for him. Being the face of the franchise, I expected him to be the guy to be pulling guys off and trying to restore order but he did the exact opposite and became the forth Tampa Bay Ray to get their shots in on the defenseless Coco Crisp.
In my opinion, both teams were in the wrong. Navarro was just trying to protect his pitcher, he never lifted a finger to Crisp but guys like Gomes? You're just a punk that was supposed to be the Rays 3-4 power hitting corner outfielder but when they actually started winning you became a nobody. Suspensions are sure to be issued to more than just Crisp after this one. Expect Carl Crawford and Jonny Gomes to receive suspensions but all will most likely appeal.
The next topic was that of the scuffle between Manny Ramirez and Kevin Youkilis. I didn't see it until way later because I was AT the game so I couldn't see into the dugout but after I saw the replay, one could only assume that Youkilis must have said something to Manny about being the last player out of the dugout to defend his teammates. Manny must have taken offense to that and taken a swipe at Youkilis. That's my best guess and really the only reasonable guess.
But most importantly, we didn't see Coco walk out of the pile like Bill Lee holding his arm that is held in place by a thread. No one was hurt in the fight and above all, the Red Sox won the game, swept the series and took back first place.
-Jared Carrabis
-CARRABIS 13
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