HIGH AND TIGHT
Did you ever play ball as a kid with someone who had all the tools and talent that you wished you had: natural power, speed like a gazelle, and great hand/eye coordination, but no clue how to play the game? The kind of guy who would always throw to 3rd, whom you would run into at 2nd base on a fly ball with 2 outs, whose recognition of the rules of baseball indicated that he had never even seen a game before?
I give you Brett Gardner of the New York Yankees.
Last night, "Brett The Jet" killed a bases loaded, 2-out Yankee rally by getting tagged out at home on a short passed ball with Mark Teixera at the plate. On Saturday, I witnessed him turn his HBP courtesy of Rays starter Jeremy Hellickson into being picked off on the last of 4 very loopy throws to first.
Finally, with the bases loaded an 1 out, he ran on an obvious soft liner by Derek Jeter to first baseman Casey Kotchman, who merely had to walk to the bag to end the inning. BTW, Curtis Granderson and Mark Teixeira were to follow.
Could this be why Joe Girardi has been reluctant to remove Jeter from the leadoff spot? Don't they have programs for kids like him?
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