(Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)
Even though a preliminary decision has been made by MLB to suspend Yankees pitcher A.J. Burnett, it's almost guaranteed he doesn't regret returning fire against Vicente Padilla and the Texas Rangers.
Burnett probably shouldn't have fired that pitch so close to the head of Rangers' Nelson Cruz three nights ago, but he certainly sent a message: don't touch my teammates.
Not every pitcher is willing to retaliate after a hit-batsmen, but Burnett didn't hesitate, going straight for the tower buzz. He will appeal his six-game suspension and probably will see it shortened a bit.
But that's neither here nor there. Burnett was going to make the statement to the Rangers, and to the rest of the Major Leagues, that he doesn't mess around, regardless of the consequences.
It's that kind of loyal, hard-nosed team leadership that the Yankees haven't received from their recent big-contract signees (see Jason Giambi, Carl Pavano, Gary Sheffield, and of course Alex Rodriguez).
The Newcomers
A.J.
Burnett leads the team in strikeouts and, besides his recent teammate-back up, he is always one of the first guys on the field to celebrate with a player that comes up with a walk-off hit.
And we've all seen him ruthlessly ambush game-ball players with a face full of whip cream during post-game interviews, something Yankee fans haven't seen much of in recent years.
C.C.
Besides leading the starting rotation in innings pitched, ERA, wins, hits per inning and walks per inning, C.C. Sabathia did something we also haven't seen in a while; he took his team out to a different kind of ball game. Picking up the tab, Sabathia brought his new buddies along to LeBron's playoff show in Cleveland.
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