Hunter Reminds Pudge Who Owns Who

If you watch the replay of the bench clearing spat from the Sept. 8th Yankees/Angels game, you can see Hunter’s shove was the result of an innocent misunderstanding. Reaching home plate, Hunter was tagged out by Pudge Rodriguez, who had no intention of causing a scuffle.

Hunter thought the tag was flagrant and felt the proper retort would be to shove Pudge in the back. The whole thing is the result of tempers flaring. . . but definitely serves as a reminder for who owns who between these two teams.

If any one team completely owns another in the modern era, the Angels own the Yanks. Even the pre-2008 terrifying Yankee line up doesn’t seem as impressive when playing the Halos. This excellent article at Kotchatthebat.com gives stats for the Angels-Yankees rivalry since 1996. As Kotch states, the most interesting number in the stats for regular season play is the number of 1-Run Wins. . . the Yankees are not a team built for small ball. Scoscia’s NL mentality plays havoc with a Yankee team designed to bring a huge club to a precision game. What works in the AL East against the Red Sox fails against the Angels over and over again. And I love it.

This season, the Yankees are 3-7 against the Angels. Granted, the Yankees would be well served to sign my grandmother to their pitching staff this season, but they still travel with the Big Stick, Undeserved Swagger mentality. The answer is as simple as playful shove to the back: Angels pitching is not intimidated by anyone. They have a Rally Monkey. And you don’t.

Mr. April, A-Rod, is famous for being a non-clutch hitter. His at bats with men in scoring position make me giggle like a 12 year old school girl.

And he did it again, August 10th of this year, with Jeter at 3rd and two outs in the 5th. Saunders was fearless and got Rodriguez to pop out by throwing heat. The Angels swept that series and again reminded the Yanks that while Steinbrenner is the owner on paper, we all know who they really belong to.