A Great Game

As opposed to opening night C.C. Sabathia was stellar in his second start of the season, taking a no hitter into the eighth inning. He certainly nullified any problems doubters may have had regarding his overall stamina afters such a heavy work load last postseason. One thing that stood out to me was the fact that Cervelli was behind the plate calling the game and not Posada. For some this is probably a shock that Francisco Cervelli caught a near no hitter in his first start on the season, but he has done this before with Sabathia. Last year he caught the Yankees only complete game shutout against the Orioles with C.C. on the mound,so many feel his ability as a catcher is very underrated. Sabathia had everything working on the mound and baffled the Rays lineup which had just roughed up Javier Vasquez the previous night. With great defensive plays by Texieria, Cano, and Rodriguez, C.C. was able to keep his no hit bid in tact through the seventh inning, until Kelly Shoppach got the Rays first hit with two outs in the eighth. Though he could not seal the deal, he gave Yankees a reason the feel that he will be just fine in the 2010 season..

MLB Umpire Joe West made a surprising comment this week about the length of Yankee-Red Sox games calling the "pathetic and embarrassing" and a "disgrace to the league". I am sure there are many who completely disagree with his statement including both the Yankees and Red Sox. The length of the games has become an issue over the the past year, however when two quality teams that pride themselves on taking pitches and waiting out at bats get together the games a most certainly going to be longer, that is what makes the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry so entertaining. These games are not like games between lesser tiered teams such as the Pirates or Nationals who will have faster games because their players are not going to have long at bats so therefore you can expect the games to be shorter. West's comments certainly show how he does not care for the integrity of the game, he could start calling a wider strike zone during Yankees-Red Sox games just to prevent the game from pulling too much TV overtime, but then again the Yankees and Red Sox have their own TV networks and am sure ESPN is not going to complain about one of sports greatest rivalries staying on air past the 3 hours allotted to it. If the MLB is truly worried about the length of games they will make fair adjustments for every team to respect and not listen to one umpire complaining about one game which has no effect on the whole.