Just play ball
THE RED SOX-Yankee playoff series has inspired small boys (and their fathers) to copy the Sox' close-to-the scalp haircut. It has prompted couples enjoying a romantic dinner to bolt for the television set. It has caromed fans at Fenway Park between joy and despair and wrung tension-filled performances from the players.
None of this should have been a pretext for the violence that disfigured the game on Saturday. Now that the Red Sox face do-or-die baseball in New York, Yankee management and the police need to make sure that nothing violent happens on the field or in the stands.
Players and coaches, not the fans, were the problem in Boston Saturday. It is easy now to retrace the cascade of poor decisions. Pedro Martinez should not have thrown at Yankee Karim Garcia. Martinez then shouldn't have exchanged gestures with Yankee Jorge Posada. Garcia should not have slid viciously into second baseman Todd Walker. Manny Ramirez should not have advanced on pitcher Roger Clemens, and the Yankees should not have stormed the field. Coach Don Zimmer should not have tried to attack Martinez, and Martinez should not have thrown him to the ground. Finally, Garcia and Yankee pitcher Jeff Nelson shouldn't have fought with a bullpen attendant.
Only Zimmer had the good sense to apologize. "I'm embarassed for the Yankees, the Red Sox, the fans, the umpires, and my family," he said Sunday. Martinez, Posada, Ramirez, Nelson, and Garcia should follow suit. "I wish no man would have to apologize," Martinez said after Zimmer's statement. "It's not a good feeling to have to apologize."
It's an even worse feeling for someone watching the game on television to have to explain to a 10-year-old boy why his heroes were engaging in behavior that would be verboten on any Little League ballfield. Martinez, Ramirez, Garcia, and Zimmer were all fined by the baseball commissioner, but a statement of regret from the ballplayers would cost them some pride, a far more precious commodity than money to these young millionaires.
Mayor Thomas Menino beefed up the police contingent to make sure the fans remained on good behavior Monday night and yesterday, which they did. Red Sox pitcher Tim Wakefield taped an announcement urging calm, and second baseman Walker reacted calmly to being hit by a pitch Monday. In New York the team should take the lead in making sure the series ends civilly. Mayor Michael Bloomberg should make sure that the police presence is sufficent to handle the 55,000-plus crowd. And Yankees management should promptly discourage fan rowdyism.
During the last week, fans of both teams have experienced the up-and-down emotions that accompany a close, well-pitched series. They should never again get the sickening feeling that comes when violence disrupts America's game.
