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| | Monday, October 18 | |||||
| BOSTON -- Boston Red Sox manager Jimy Williams mocked New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner on Monday and denied
encouraging fans to bombard the field with garbage during the game.
"When Georgie Porgie speaks, I don't listen," Williams said
before Game 5 of the AL Championship Series. "... The calls on the
field incited it, not me."
But Steinbrenner had the last word after New York's 6-1 win gave
the Yankees a 4-1 victory in the best-of-7 series.
"Oh, is that it?" he asked. "Maybe he should listen to me
now."
Second base umpire Tim Tschida admitted Sunday that he made the wrong call in the eighth inning after Chuck Knoblauch tried -- but
clearly failed, replays showed -- to tag Jose Offerman on his way to
second. In the ninth, first base umpire Dale Scott also missed a
call, ruling Nomar Garciaparra out when replays showed he was safe.
Williams came out of the dugout and was soon ejected. And that
brought a hail of garbage onto the field as angry fans took out the
frustrations of 81 years without a World Series title.
"He really incited it," Steinbrenner said after the game,
which the Yankees won 9-2.
Told of Steinbrenner's comments, Williams said, "I've never
worried about Georgie Porgie. He's never been in the trenches."
"But I didn't try to incite it," he said. "I don't like to
see these things happen."
Red Sox outfielder Darren Lewis acknowledged that Williams' tantrum was out of character.
"But Steinbrenner's statement was sheer madness," he said.
One umpire had already admitted making a mistake that cost the
Red Sox a scoring opportunity in the 10th inning of Game 1, which
the Yankees eventually won 4-3. Williams' complaint then was that
the umpires didn't ask each other for help.
On Monday, Williams said he asked Tschida to get help from other
umpires, but was refused.
"More than once, I asked for help," Williams said. "And I
asked in English."
Williams skipped the postgame news conference Sunday night and
issued a terse statement reminding everyone that the series wasn't
over yet. On Monday, he apologized for his absence.
"I just didn't want to talk about the umpires any more," he
said.
The field was cleared and the game was delayed for eight minutes
after the second bad call Sunday night. A half hour after the last
out, fans still crowded around a ballpark television and groaned
when the replay was shown on the local news.
Williams said he understood the fans' frustration, but he wants
them to find another way to express it.
"I like those players over there. I don't want to see any of
them get hurt. I don't want to see any of our guys get hurt," he
said. "I like our fans, but I was not right.
"But I didn't incite it. If I really felt I did, I'd accept
responsibility. But I just couldn't take it anymore. Those calls
..." | ALSO SEE Boston police beef up security for Game 5
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Red Sox fans shower field with debris, profanities
Yankees take commanding lead with 9-2 victory
Yankees vs. Red Sox series page
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