Urchin, did you even watch the replay?
72 or not, he took a swing at Pedro and Pedro was the better man by just sidestepping him and putting him on the ground.
A guy's got a right to defend himself.
Oh, and while we're on the subject of who was right and wrong, lets not forget Garcia trying to break Todd Walker's legs at 2nd base.
It went both ways. Deal with it.
The problems began in the fourth when Martinez drilled Garcia in the back after the Yankees scored twice to take a 4-2 lead. Yankees manager Joe Torre said he had no doubt it was on purpose, and neither did many observers. Moments later, Garcia slid hard - real hard - into second base on a grounder to short, nearly pasting Todd Walker against the left-field wall. After that, everyone knew the eruption was only a question of time.
"It wasn't the take-out, it was the intent," Walker said. "No doubt about it, he was angry and was coming in to break my leg. If I got thrown at like he did, I might have done the same thing."
Order was restored, and it might have ended there, until Clemens fired a 2-1 fastball to Ramirez in the bottom half of the fourth. Ramirez immediately began walking toward the mound, shouting and pointing his bat at Clemens. Clemens shouted back. Both dugouts emptied. And then Zimmer, whose life was nearly ended by a beaning during his playing days, briefly forfeited all logic by charging across the field at Martinez.
Walker later called it a bull-rush, and maybe it sort-of was, remembering Zim is a rotund, old man. Pedro easily stepped aside and flung Zim to the ground. He landed head-first, and stayed there, dazed, as the Yankees gathered around him. Zimmer has been in baseball since Edison invented the light bulb, but this had to be a first.
"I was shocked," Martinez said afterward, while briefly answering questions on his way out of the clubhouse. "I never raised my hand against him. I saw him coming and just tried to dodge him. Hopefully, he's fine. I would never hit him."
Said Walker, "I have the utmost respect for Don Zimmer. We all do. But he put himself at risk by charging at Pedro. No one in this clubhouse blames Pedro for defending himself."
i must admit though, Jeter was a class act in his interview after the game.
