Yanks angry about postponement to Sept. 8

BALTIMORE -- Yankees manager Joe Girardi reacted angrily to the Orioles' late and seemingly unilateral decision to postpone Saturday's day-night doubleheader and reschedule one of the games for Sept. 8, the Yankees' only true off-day in the season's final month.

Girardi wasn't upset that Saturday's games were called off because of Hurricane Irene; that seemed to be a foregone conclusion all day. Nor was he particularly miffed that a day-night doubleheader was scheduled for Sunday.

What got Girardi's goat was the Orioles not agreeing to play a doubleheader under perfect skies Friday. That left one of this series' five originally scheduled games unaccounted for, which led to the Orioles' decision to add the Sept. 8 makeup in Baltimore without the Yankees' consent.

"We didn't agree to play Sept. 8," Girardi said after the Yankees' 12-5 loss. "They scheduled it, we didn't agree with it and I really don't understand it. We're going to fight it."

It's unclear how the Yankees can fight it. As the home team, the Orioles have the largest say in rescheduling games. The haggling among the teams, the commissioner's office and the Players Association led to no decision being announced until 9 p.m Friday.

The Yankees wanted to play a day-night doubleheader Friday but the Orioles -- coming off an 11-game road trip -- rejected it. That could have gotten the teams ahead of Hurricane Irene's curve and would have been consistent with how the rest of the sports world has reacted.

"It's silly to me," Girardi said. "I don't understand why we didn't play a split doubleheader today. Someone's got to step up, and they did it all over the country. They did it in Philadelphia, they did it in Boston, they did it in Florida. Football games have been moved up. Soccer games. Golf has been canceled, 18 holes. Why we didn't play a split today, I have no idea. And now they want us to give up our off-day, the only off-day that we truly have."

The Yankees (in addition to Saturday's new day off in Baltimore) were set to be off Sept. 8 and 15. But they will be flying from Seattle to Toronto after a game on Sept. 14, so to their minds, Sept. 8 is their only true day off.

The Yankees have made two other suggestions: to play the Sept. 8 game as part of a day-night doubleheader at Yankee Stadium with the Orioles as the home team or to play the game after the regular season if it's needed.

Rejected.

Stalemate.

"We have not agreed to play Sept. 8," Girardi said. "They have scheduled. We have not agreed."

Yankees union representative Curtis Granderson said he was surprised when the resolution was announced on the centerfield scoreboard during the game. The Sept. 8 game time is TBA, which seems fitting.

"Playing on the eighth . . . It's going to be difficult [to fight],'' Granderson said. "At the same time, you do need both parties. You need their team and our team. So we're going to try to fight it as much as we can."

MLB spokesman Pat Courtney had no comment on the situation.