Cover the flank!

I got Mitchie-poo on the right!

Some Canadian jackass on the left!

While writing about Clay Bucholtz’s cheating, Dirk Hayhurst, some Canadian baseball writer that neither I nor Cliff Lee had heard of until yesterday, questioned the grease on Lee’s saddle: [Sportsnet]

Pitchers break the law, folks. Some do it in the accepted “it’s only five miles over the limit, officer,” way. Some have big enough names that they can get away with it even when it’s plain for all to see – Cliff Lee’s hat, anyone?

Before throwing out such accusation, a person should know that Lee goes to the rosin, and his mouth, between every batter. His hat is just dirty. And that was pretty much Lee’s response when asked about it by Ryan Lawrence of the Daily News yesterday: [Philly.com]

“Who’s Dirk Hayhurst?” Lee told the Daily News when approached about the subject matter before taking the field for batting practice on Friday afternoon at Citizens Bank Park.

After it was explained that Hayhurst was a former big leaguer-turned-author, Lee was asked about being accused of scuffing baseballs.

“That’s nothing,” Lee said of tugging on his hat bill in between pitches.

“That’s a completely inaccurate statement,” Lee said of Hayhurst’s accusation. “I’ll go get you my hat right now. I’ve been wearing the same hat for three years. It’s sweat and rosin.”

So there you have it. Cliff Lee: not a cheater, doesn’t know who Dirk Hayhurst is.

Meanwhile, Roy Halladay was defending his pitching coach, Rich Dubee, from an attack launched by Mitch Williams on WIP. Williams said that Dubee needed to be fired because he couldn’t fix Halladay’s mechanical problems. This follows an arugment between Dubee and Williams in spring training when Williams was talking to Phillies pitchers. Halladay defended Dubee: [Zo Zone]

“Coming from the mechanical wonder,” Halladay said. “Yeah, I strongly disagree. To come from a guy who’s not around, who’s not involved. He’s not involved in the conversations … honestly has no idea what’s going on. He really doesn’t. He has no idea what’s going on in the clubhouse, on the field between coaches and players. To make comments like that, it’s completely out of line. It really is. Rich Dubee, when I first came over, he taught me a change up. If I hadn’t had that coming over here I wouldn’t have had the success I’ve had over here. Especially dealing with the injuries I’ve dealt with, if I didn’t have that pitch, if I didn’t have him working with me, I really would have been in a lot of trouble. In my opinion, it’s a statement that I feel like he needs to make amends for. I really do. There’s very few pitching coaches that I respect more than Rich Dubee. Watching Kyle Kendrick, the stuff that he’s learned, the way he’s grown, is because of Rich Dubee and it’s because of his work ethic and the way he goes about things. It really does upset me. It upsets me that guys outside of our group of guys that don’t understand what’s going on here make comments like that. Hopefully, it’s something he’ll learn from. I’m not sure if that’s the case, but he couldn’t be further from the truth. And I don’t think it’s the first time he’s been a little off base.”

Dubee’s response was even better:

“That’s good. Maybe I hurt his feelings with the dust up, but I don’t know. Mitch has got a chance. He can apply to 30 teams (to be a pitching coach). You know? I’ve got no comment to that. Maybe he got upset because I spoke to him about getting involved in our pitching, where I don’t think he belongs. Maybe he’s upset at that. But I don’t think other people belong in our pitching. Again, like I said, he’s got a chance to submit a resume.”

Spunk. Nice.