Protests in baseball are relatively infrequent, Yankees protest a lot

Red Sox Yankees games are never without some sort of kerfluffle or controversy. Last night was no exception as Joe Girardi is protesting the manner in which Red Sox pitching coach John Farrell and manager Terry Francona removed starter Josh Beckett from the game. 

The sequence of events went something like this. Beckett gives up two run double to Cano. Farrell visits the mound and motions for a reliever, and Francona and a trainer came to visit with Beckett. Manny Delcarmen entered the game, adn was given unlimited warmup throws, as a pitcher was being pulled due to injury. However, Joe Girardi claims that the Red Sox never told the umpire that this was an injury related substition, and hence only deserved eight warm up pitches.

The Yankees and Girardi are no stranger to claiming protests. Just last summer during interleage play against the Marlins, Girardi protested that pitcher Leo Nunez should have been out of the game after manager Fredi Gonzalez had made a double switch. The protest was denied and the Yankees lost the game 6-3.

The most infamous protest in history took place before many of the current Yankees were even born. On July 24, 1983 at Yankee Stadium, the "Pine Tar Incident" between the Yankees and the Royals went down. George Brett hit a two-run bomb after allegedly putting an abundance of pine tar all over his bat. The bat was confiscated after a batboy was chased down trying to dispose of it. The umpires determined there was too much pine tar on the bat, and ended up calling Brett out. Brett was not pleased, the Royals protested the game and won, as while there was an illegal amout of tar on the bat, there is no specific punishment for a player who over greases. So the out was an illegal call.  The protest was granted, the Yanks protested the protest, and lost.  So the game was replayed nearly a month later. Several players were ejected. And the Royals won. Though the best part of this story? The home plate umpire was a rookie named Tim McClelland.

Inavertantly relating to the Yankees, the Brewers protested a hit during a CC Sabathia no-hitter two years ago. Adam LaRoche hit a blooper back to Sabathia, who fumbled the ball and didn't bother to make the throw to first. It was scored an infield single, and Brewers manager Ned Yost believed it should have been an error charged to Sabathia, preserving his no hitter. This challenge was rejected, and the game was scored a one-hitter. Boo. Hoo.

It's not often that protests turn out to be fruitful because of an important clause: An umpire's judgement is the final word and cannot be challenged. So we'll see how this latest protest turns out. Likely nothing, but it certainly sprays a little hairpray on the campfire that is the Yankees/Sox rivalry.