The Bronx Stop: A Yankees Blog

Pitcher LaTroy Hawkins of the New York Yankees has been suspended for three games and fined an undisclosed amount for intentionally throwing a pitch in the head area of Luke Scott during the top of the sixth inning of the Tuesday, May 20th game against the Baltimore Orioles at Yankee Stadium. Bob Watson, Vice President of On-Field Operations for Major League Baseball, made the announcement.

Of course, Hawkins will appeal.

Most people would look at that picture to the right and think it was Bobby Abreu celebrating his two-run home run in last night's game (which it is)...but not so fast!!!

That is actually a celebration in the outfield for some very deserving people!!!

As Pete Abe over at LoHud points out:

The Yankees held the Rays to one run in a game in which Mike Mussina, Brian Bruney, Kyle Farnsworth, and LaTroy Hawkins all pitched in. Seriously. That actually happened...tonight.

Nothing short of amazing. Dave Eiland is a genius.

Oops!!!  Kevin Kernan of the New York Post had this hilarious article (Hat-Tip to My Baseball Bias:

The clubhouse pranks for the Yankees have picked up  this spring, and last year's No. 1 pick Andrew Brackman, who is rehabbing from Tommy John surgery, has been hit hard. He walked to his locker yesterday morning to find that all of his sliders, his baseball underwear, had been slit down the middle.

Brackman's Yankees cap suffered a similar fate. Brackman tossed it in the garbage and then saw the worst of the damage. Six pairs of workout shoes, including brand new spikes, had their shoelaces cut by a Pinstriped Jack the Ripper. The laces were sliced tongue to toe right down the middle, so Brackman, who signed a $4.5 million deal, spent a good part of the day re-lacing his shoes.

"Man, they got me good," he said.

The prank war escalated because Brackman fired back on a veteran player.

"If you get hit by a veteran and fire back," one Yankee insider noted, "they come at you 10 times harder."

The word is that you don't mess with relievers LaTroy Hawkins or Brian Bruney. Ian Kennedy told Brackman to "wave the white flag," but the right-hander has yet to do it.

"It's only going to get worse," Kennedy warned.

Hawkins, for his part, said he did not take direct part in yesterday's attack. While looking over the damage, he did say, "My people took care of some business."

"I'm not quitting," Brackman said of the prankster battle.

Asked if he had any advice for the 22-year-old, Hawkins offered, "You got to know when to hold 'em and know when to fold 'em."

Reliever LaTroy Hawkins, who agreed to a one- year deal worth $3.75 million Sunday, will take a physical either on Tuesday or Wednesday of this week.

"Hawkins joined the Rockies before last season and went 2-5 with a 3.42 ERA in 62 appearances. It was a comeback year for the former closer. He is no longer a candidate to save games, but his ERA could prove useful as a middle reliever in those really deep formats that use true middle men."