"The cheaper the hood, the gaudier the patter."

I've always admired the ability of baseball managers to work themselves into a rage over pretty much anything—a blown call that they didn't see themselves, an underhanded tactic by another team's player that they quietly encourage on their own side, etc.

This season, Kevin Cash obviously decided to work his Tampa Bay Rays into a lather whenever they play the Yankees, no doubt in order to show that they had nothing to fear against the big team.  Hence all the chirping and the headhunting they've engaged in this year.

Hey, more power to him.  I often wish the Yanks had someone so interested in lighting a fire under our boys.

But then a couple of Pinstripers retaliated last night, including Sweats Chapman whizzing a 101-mph fastball just over the head of one of the very chirpiest Rays, Mike Brosseau, who has played a grand total of 73 major-league games in his life.

After striking out to end the game, Brosseau made out as if he were about to charge the now-empty mound, and Manager Cash took it upon himself to inform us that he had "a whole stable full of guys who can throw 98-mile-an-hour beanballs."

Now of course, if a Yankee manager ever said anything like that it would be treated as a war crime, and Commissioner Clueless Manfred would now be escorting Boone to The Hague to file charges.  Somehow, I suspect the punishment meted out to Cash will be a little less severe, which is to say nonexistent.

As for Mr. Brosseau, well sweetheart, some of us are old enough to remember the days when the likes of Willie Mays or Frank Robinson used to be splayed in the dirt dodging fastballs from Sandy Koufax or Bob Gibson, and somehow they managed to get up, dust themselves off and get back in the box without another word.

You might want to check out some of those clips, tiger.