My Guys Win Without Their Manager

"There are two kinds of people in the world. There's my guys, and there's not my guys. Now, if you wanna be one of my guys, we can have that conversation."
-- Lieutenant Gene Hunt, NYPD (Harvey Keitel), Life On Mars (episode took place in 1973 but aired in 2009)

I divide the world into 3 groups of people. There's my guys, there's guys who could become my guys, and then there's guys who are never going to be my guys.

Aaron Boone may not know I exist, but, for what he did at 12:16 AM on October 17, 2003, he will forever be one of my guys.

Several of the current Yankee players are already my guys. Edwin Encarnación, tonight's Yankee hero, could become one of my guys. Brennan Miller, who umpired this week's Yankees vs. Tampa Bay Rays series, will never be one of my guys.

Early in the opener of Thursday's rain-forced doubleheader with the Rays, Miller was umpiring behind the plate, and his strike zone was about as wide as the Major Deegan Expressway. Phone was calling him on it from the dugout, using "George Carlin words."

Finally, Miller yelled toward the dugout, "I hear you, Aaron!"

Good, that means your ears work fine. If only your eyes did.

That's what I would have said. That's not what Boone said, though. He said, "Bear the fuck down!" And Miller threw him out of the game.

Boone came out of the dugout, and defended his players in a way that we haven't seen from a Yankee manager for a long time. Not from Joe Girardi, perennially passive. Not from Joe Torre, who, as great as he was, was frequently too concerned with appearing "classy." Not from Buck Showalter, who didn't seem to find his courage until well after George Steinbrenner told him to take a hike.

The Yankees do strike out more than they should. But they also make contact a lot, sometimes fouling pitches off until they get one they like. Boone essentially told Miller, "If the pitch actually is a strike, my guys will swing at it."

It's not often that we get good audio on arguments without a prearranged mike-up with one if the participants, but let's give some DAP to the YES Network, because we got Boone's full tirade:

My guys are fucking savages in that box! And you're having a piece of shit start to this game! I feel bad for you, but fucking be better! That guy is a good pitcher, man, but our guys are fucking savages in that box! Our guys are savages in the fucking box! Tighten it up right now, OK? Tighten this shit up!

You'll notice that Boone was criticizing him, but not actually insulting him. He didn't say, "You're a bad umpire." He said, "You're having a bad game." Not that Miller was incompetent or corrupt by nature, just that he wasn't getting the job done today. Boone had already been thrown out, so we didn't have much left to lose, but he still could have been considerably less respectful.

The jokes already made the rounds on Twitter within a couple of innings. People posted designs for T-shirts saying "F*CKING SAVAGES," or some other way of obscuring letters so the message could be gotten across without kids seeing the word "fucking" in public. (As if they haven't become aware of it already.)

I made suggestion that Yankee Stadium II be nicknamed Savage Square Garden, and that led me to muse that maybe, if we make it to the World Series, the band Savage Garden be asked to sing the National Anthem.

But it occurred to me: Everyone is focusing on the wrong words here. The key words are not "fucking savages."

The key words here are "my guys."

Did you ever hear Girardi try to protect his players from an umpire by asserting that they were his players? Or Torre? Or Showalter?

The Yankees went on to win the game, and the nightcap. For his tirade, Boone got suspended for last night's opener of a 3-game home Interleague series with the Colorado Rockies. He chose not to appeal it, perhaps agreeing with me that it was totally worth it.

He had sent a message. He had sent it to his own players, saying, "You're my guys, and I will stand up for you, all the way." He sent it to the umpires, saying, "I will stand up for my guys, no matter what you do." And he had sent it to the Rays, saying, "We are the New York Yankees, and you are not, and you are not going to beat us."

It's about time a Yankee manager did that.

*

So the game was played last night. I haven't heard who did the actual managing for Yankees and I don't think it matters now.

As was the case in each game of the previous day's doubleheader, Yankees fell behind 2-0 early, and then came back forcefully. With 1 out in the bottom of the 3rd, former Rockie DJ LeMahieu singled, and then Aaron Judge and Gary Sanchez drew walks. Cliché Alert: Walks can kill you. Edwin Encarnación came up, and hit a grand slam. 4-2 Yankees.

LeMahieu singled home another run in the 4th. In the 6th, he grounded into a fielder's choice that got another run home, and then came around to score on a home run by Judge.

J.A. Happ threw 90 pitches over the 1st 5 innings, but didn't allow any runs after the 1st inning. It was decided to take him out, and another former Rockie, Adam Ottavino, pitched a scoreless 6th, with a slider that Yankee Legend Paul O'Neill,  on the YES Network, called "absolutely disgusting." This, of course, was a play on the common saying for a slider. Cliché Alert: "That's not just filthy, that's nasty."

And to think, I thought Ottavino was an idiot, following his remarks about Babe Ruth in the off-season, before we acquired him.

Stephen Tarpley, who has struggled this season, was put in to protect the lead for the last 3 innings, and got the job done, allowing no runs. Yankees 8, Rockies 2. WP: Happ (8-5). SV: Tarpley (2). LP: Kyle Freeland (2-7).

The Rays lost last night, so they are now 9 games behind the Yankees in the American League Eastern Division. The Boston Red Sox also lost, so they are 11 games back.

The series continues this afternoon, with Masahiro Tanaka starting against Antonio Senzatela. Come on, my guys! Come on, Aaron Boone's guys! Come on you Yankees! Come on you Pinstripes! Come on you Bombers! Come on you Fucking Savages!