They may go down swinging

By Michael Holley, Globe Columnist, 10/12/2003

Please, we don't need any more cowboys. We don't need any 72-year-old vigilantes rushing from the Yankees dugout, trying to attack Pedro Martinez. We don't need a Fenway Park employee -- who also happens to be a schoolteacher in Waltham, for goodness sake -- taunting pitchers in the Yankees bullpen.

We do need some accountability from Tim McClelland, the umpire crew chief who has already made two controversial judgment calls in the past week. And, oh by the way, we'd like the best-of-seven American League Championship Series to return, no gloves and canvas necessary.

The Red Sox lost Game 3 yesterday, 4-3. They have lost the home-field advantage they secured in the Bronx. They trail the Yankees 2 games to 1.

Unfortunately, the details of the series became an aside after a ridiculous fourth inning. Martinez took the mound with his team tied with the Yankees at 2. He gave up a walk, a single, and a double. Now trailing, 4-2, he either intentionally hit Karim Garcia with a pitch that was whistling toward the outfielder's head or he let a fastball slip away from him.

The Sox' position was that it slipped. The Yankees' position was that it was intentional.

After that, an excess of pride, testosterone, tradition, and stupidity took over. Garcia yelled at Martinez and took Todd Walker out hard at second base because that's the way it goes in baseball. There was some staring and pushing and pointing. In the bottom of the fourth, Roger Clemens pitched high and inside to Manny Ramirez -- the pitch didn't come close to buzzing him -- and that's when Don (Dim and Dimmer) Zimmer got his chance at the spotlight.

As the benches and bullpens were emptying, the elderly Zimmer decided that he wanted to take out Martinez. The old man charged Pedro with his arms raised. Martinez stepped aside like a bullfighter, put two open palms on Zimmer's head, and let him tumble to the ground. When the umpires finally got "control" of the game, Zimmer remained in the dugout. He was taken to Beth Israel Deaconess last evening for observation.

Watching the entire scene, you had to ask yourself how, time after time, a sport manages to continually smack itself in the face. Either Ramirez or Martinez should have been ejected. Neither was. Zimmer certainly should have been ejected. He wasn't.

Why?

McClelland refused to answer that after the game. A statement revealed that he felt the umpires' actions "spoke for themselves" and he had nothing else to say. In three games, McClelland has already overruled a member of his crew on a home run and mysteriously decided that no ejections were warranted for an attack on the field. That the attack came from a bench coach in his 70s who can be alternately charming and "fiery" is not the point. A message was not sent immediately, although there is a good chance it will come later. From someone else.

Sandy Alderson, baseball's vice president of operations, said he was happy with the job the umpires did. But when asked about suspensions and fines, he said it is not unprecedented for baseball to hand out both even if a game hasn't had any ejections. In other words, a key member of the Sox -- either Martinez or Ramirez -- could be fined, or even worse, suspended during this series.

Ridiculous.

We no longer have to ask where all the cowboys have gone. There are too many of them now. Players and fans have taken the rivalry too far, believing that some kind of war is going on. It isn't. Anti-Yankee emotion is fantastic, but emotion isn't how you're going to beat them. Anaheim didn't do it that way last year and Arizona didn't do it in 2001.

It's hard to criticize fans for aggressive behavior when umpires don't properly handle the aggressiveness on the field, but one uniformed employee went too far in the ninth. Paul Williams was assigned to the Yankees bullpen. He wound up tussling with them and being escorted away by police. This from an employee!

"I think when this series began," Red Sox manager Grady Little said afterward, "everyone knew it was going to be quite a battle. It was going to be very emotional. A lot of intensity. But I think we've upgraded it from a battle to a war."

Well, as long as the battle involves playing small ball every once in a while. As long as it involves hit-and-runs to stay out of double plays. The Sox are down, 2-1, in a seven-game series with John Burkett going against David Wells tonight. Emotion and bravado and Yankee chants sound and look good for the cameras. But that has nothing to do with the point, which is trying to win three more games.

Michael Holley is a Globe columnist. His e-mail address is holley@globe.com.