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Mariners vs. Yankees |
Mets vs. Cardinals
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Thursday, October 12
Phillips, La Russa exchange words
By Jayson Stark
ESPN.com
ST. LOUIS -- Did he or didn't he?
In the ninth inning Wednesday night, Cardinals reliever Mike James gave up two home runs in a span of three hitters, then drilled Mets shortstop Mike Bordick in the thumb.
Thursday, Bordick was missing from the Mets; starting lineup for Game 2 of the National League Championship Series because of swelling in that same thumb -- the big thumb on his throwing hand. Kurt Abbott took his place in the lineup.
|  | | Mike Bordick checks his hand after getting hit by Mike James in the ninth inning of Game 1. |
Bordick said he didn't think James did it on purpose. Mets GM Steve Phillips insinuated otherwise. James and Cardinals manager Tony La Russa were both steaming over the whole affair.
So did he or didn't he?
As a public service, we now present everybody's side of this story.
Asked after Wednesday's game if he thought Bordick had been hit on purpose, Phillips replied: "Yeah, I think he did. But that's just baseball."
Asked if he was angry at the time he made those comments, Phillips said: "Yes, but anger is part of baseball, too."
Asked if he thought the Mets would retaliate, Phillips took a long pause, grinned, then answered:
"No. That's not part of baseball."
Before Thursday's game, La Russa let his temper show when he was told of Philips' remarks.
"That's impossible that he said that," La Russa said. "That's bull. I don't believe he could say anything that stupid. He ought to be ashamed of himself."
But Phillips did only minimal retreating after hearing of La Russa's remarks.
"I didn't take a poll after the game," he said. "But I think if I'd asked my players (if the pitch was intentional), they'd have agreed."
Asked again if he expected to see his team respond in some way, Phillips answered: "We're here to win games. We're not here to start fights."
La Russa and Bordick, of course, have a history of their own from their days together in Oakland. And La Russa pointed that out.
"Mike Bordick is one of my all-time favorites," he said. "But even if I hated Mike Bordick, we're getting beat up. So (the idea is to) just make a better pitch."
When Phillips was told of that statement, he made it clear the finger he was pointing was pointed at James alone.
"I don't think Tony La Russa said, 'Throw at him,' " the GM said. "If that's the question he responded to, I think he had a right to respond as he did."
But when word of all this filtered down to James, he wasn't quite so conciliatory.
"That's stupid," he said, when asked about Phillips' accusations. "If I'm going to throw at somebody, I'm not going to throw at the smallest guy. ... Anybody who knows anything about baseball knows that's stupid to even think that. Whoever would think that has got to be a complete idiot and doesn't know anything about the game."
Incredibly, only one principal in this brouhaha wasn't making an issue of it. And that was Bordick himself. He said after Wednesday's game he didn't think he was hit on purpose. He repeated that Thursday.
"If he had wanted to send a message, he would have done it on the first pitch, not the third pitch," Bordick said. "If he was that upset that he wanted to send a message, he would have just gone out there and gotten it over with. But it was the third pitch. I thought he was just trying to back me off the plate to set up another pitch."
When someone suggested that maybe James just didn't want to deliver that message quite so obviously, Bordick replied: "Why wouldn't he? Wouldn't he want to make it obvious? If I'm a pitcher and I wanted to send that message, I'd do it right away and get it over with. Obviously, I'm not a pitcher. But that's how I would think."
Bordick said he was "frustrated" about getting hit. But he sounded more upset about not being inserted in the lineup for Game 2, despite pronouncing himself ready.
"I came to the park expecting to play," he said. "I went out and tossed balls across the field. I took some swings and said I was ready. But obviously, it's the manager's call. I told him what I'd done and how it felt and that I was available to play. When he said he wasn't going to put me in the lineup, I told him again. It's his call. But I don't think there's one player in the playoffs right now that's 100 percent."
Jayson Stark is a senior writer at ESPN.com.
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MULTIMEDIA
Should the Mets have retaliated after the Cardinals hit Mike Bordick? Turk Wendell gives his thoughts.
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