The New York Yankees are a franchise with a rich tradition steeped in old-timey baseball norms. Even though slugger Reggie Jackson has recently dipped and now aligns himself with the Houston Astros, where he’s an adviser, he still ascribes himself to the old-school mentality.
This much was evident in Jackson’s reaction Wednesday afternoon to the bit of baseball blasphemy that occurred on a cold afternoon in Minnesota, when aging Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw was pulled after seven innings — and 80 pitches! — midway through a perfect game.
Completely unsurprisingly, lefty reliever Alex Vesia quickly surrendered a single, as the baseball world still waits on tenterhooks for the first-ever combined perfect game to be recorded.
Count Jackson among those who believe it never should’ve gotten to that point in the first place.
Mr. October, apparently without a line of advisors between his fingers and his phone, launched a partial-caps tweet minutes after Kershaw was yanked vehemently disagreeing with Dave Roberts’ decision.
Please, no one tell Reggie that he did this six years ago with Rich Hill, too.
Yankees icon Reggie Jackson is furious the Dodgers pulled Clayton Kershaw.
Hate to side with a “Back in my day…” take, but truly, back in basically anyone’s day, this would not have happened. Kershaw wasn’t even overloaded, pitch-count wise. This was only a Johan Santana-esque situation in the loosest terms.
Of course, Jackson’s take is missing a few key elements.
For one thing, Dave Roberts does not qualify as a person “who has never played” who needs to “get out of way,” unless Jackson has specifically blocked out the 2004 ALCS. If so, we commend him for it.
For another, Kershaw himself was extremely down with the decision, seeing as he was coming off an elbow injury, shortened spring, and brief throwing session.
Kershaw, too, has played baseball before.
While there was certainly a little Reggie Jackson inside all of us who wanted to see Kershaw go batter to batter and try to go the distance, we understand why this unfortunate decision was made.
Put your Reggie Bars back in your holsters, everyone.
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