STORYLINES
1. A fond farewell » Gosh, are we gonna miss Lou Piniella — the kicking, the screaming, the … um … base throwing. Perhaps lost in the shuffle of all the bluster — as a player, Piniella once started a massive on-field brawl after running over Red Sox catcher Carlton Fisk — is the fact that he’ll leave baseball with more than 1,800 wins as a manager, 1,705 hits as a player and three World Series rings. The fiery — and often confrontational — Piniella was AL rookie of the year in 1969 and is one of only four men to be named manager of the year in both leagues. Of course, we’ll best remember him for his colorful ejections, all 65 of them, during a tumultuous — and very entertaining — 41-year pro career. So long, Sweet Lou. As long as there are umpires in your retirement, a YouTube masterpiece can’t be far away.
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2. Donny two-step » Baseball has ironclad regulations — some good, some bad and some, well, bizarre. Take the whole “you can’t visit the same pitcher twice in one inning without removing him from the game” rule, which Don Mattingly unknowingly broke Tuesday night against the Giants. Mattingly, filling in for the ejected Joe Torre, went to visit closer Jonathan Broxton in the ninth inning with runners on base, and then — on his way to the dugout — accidentally turned around to answer a question from James Loney. Cagy Giants manager Bruce Bochy argued that Mattingly’s turnaround counted as a second visit, leading to Broxton’s removal and a 7-5 Giants win. Case closed, right? Uh, not exactly. Apparently the proper course of action (whether to remove Broxton or Mattingly from the game) is open to interpretation because of MLB’s curious wording of the rule. The result: Nobody — including me as I write this — has a clue what’s going on.
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