Lets just skip the introductions, shall we?

Its a big night for debuts, as I write my first post following Joba Chamberlain's first game as a New York Yankee. It seems somewhat appropriate, considering that we both have unusual four letter names.

Anyway, Joba the Hutt had a fine couple of innings, striking out two while giving up a hit and two walks. His fastball was as advertised, sitting comfortably at 96mph, and touching 98, but the real eye opener was an absolutely filthy slider. The one problem seemed to be in hitting the left side of the strike zone, which is where those two walks came from. Given his sterling minor league track record (just 27 walks in 88.1 innings this year), I think we can chalk it up to nerves.

Of course, the big story of the game was Josh Towers' plunking A-Rod in the third, which led to the benches being cleared twice, Roger Clemens retaliating by hitting Alexis Rios in the seventh, and the subsequent ejections of Clemens and Joe Torre. Looking at the replay, I really don't think that Towers meant to hit him, but after being hit yesterday, I can understand why A-Rod might've thought so. What I can't understand is why after the initial bench clearing, after everyone was set to get back to the game, Towers couldn't keep his big mouth shut. Not that it really mattered, as Clemens was going to retaliate no matter what. This is, after all, a guy who once threw at his own son at an exhibition game.

Tomorrow brings us a showdown of aces between Doc Holliday and the Taiwan Kid. Should be a good one, folks.