NEW YORK (AP) -Bat-gate is over, as least as far as the New York Yankees and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays are concerned.
Third baseman Akinori Iwamura and his Yankees counterpart, Alex Rodriguez, both had their bats confiscated during New York’s 9-6 win Saturday in one of the more bizarre sequences in the Bronx since George Brett stormed the field in the “pine tar” game on July 24, 1983.
“For me, it’s over,” Tampa Bay manager Joe Maddon said Sunday. “We got it out of our systems yesterday. They did what they did and we did what we had to do.”
First, Yankees manager Joe Torre asked if Iwamura’s unusual model, featuring a flat end rather than a rounded one, was legal. Not to be outdone, Maddon asked the umps to examine Rodriguez’s bat an inning later.
A message was left Sunday seeking comment from the commissioner’s office, where both confiscated bats were sent for inspection.
Iwamura has been using the same model all season. It was checked by umpires and deemed acceptable during a game at Arizona in June, something Torre said he didn’t know about.
“I’m assuming if he’s still using it it’s OK,” Torre said. “But I think everybody should’ve had a little flier to that effect, too.”
Torre asked the umpires about Iwamura’s bat with runners at first and second in the second inning and the count 2-2. Yankees right-hander Ian Kennedy was making his first major league start, but Torre said he wasn’t trying to give the 22-year-old time to settle down.
“It was the bat,” he said. “That was the only thing that stirred me to ask.”
A-Rod’s bat was confiscated in the third with a runner on second and one out, and Maddon said it was strictly retaliatory.
“I looked at him during the course of the game,” Maddon said of Rodriguez. “He was smiling. I was smiling. He knew I had to do it.”
Rodriguez also laughed it off after the game.
Brett wasn’t amused at all when he bolted onto the field at Yankee Stadium in 1983 after umpires disallowed his go-ahead homer in the ninth inning for the Kansas City Royals because the pine tar on his bat exceeded the 18-inch limit.
Days later, American League president Lee McPhail ruled that Brett’s home run should count. The rest of the game was played Aug. 18 that year, with Kansas City beating the Yankees 5-4.
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