Joe Girardi won't stop shifting his infield, so his talk about a ban is just hot air

Tom Gatto

Joe Girardi won't stop shifting his infield, so his talk about a ban is just hot air image

Infield shifts have been around for more than seven decades in the major leagues. Lou Boudreau's strategy against Ted Williams in 1946 is the most famous early deployment.

Joe Girardi is not fond of that part of baseball history, or what it has wrought.

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The Yankees manager told reporters Tuesday he'd ban shifts if he were commissioner. "I just think the field was built this way for a reason," he was quoted as saying, adding that infielders should remain on their side of second base.

To which we reply, "Huh?"

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Yeah, the field is built a certain way, but teams are free to cover it as they wish (the rulebook says so, as The Wall Street Journal's Jared Diamond notes). To limit that option is . . . not well-reasoned. Run prevention is the name of the defense's game, so it should be able to take away a potential single up the middle or get a better angle on a sharp grounder or liner in the hole. Girardi's infield shifts regularly, and he said Tuesday he'll keep doing it "as long as it it legal." (Per ESPN.com.) 

Maybe Girardi was salty because a Yankees shift cost pitcher Nathan Eovaldi a chance at a no-hitter Monday night. That's no excuse to stop playing smart defense, a point Girardi concedes by continuing to employ the shift.   

The current commissioner, Rob Manfred, had similar sentiments about shifts last year. (SN's Jesse Spector had a thought or two in response.) Manfred soon tempered his comments. Girardi sounds slightly more dedicated to the notion, but in this case conviction doesn't equal correctness.

Tom Gatto

Tom Gatto Photo

Tom Gatto joined The Sporting News as a senior editor in 2000 after 12 years at The Herald-News in Passaic, N.J., where he served in a variety of roles including sports editor, and a brief spell at APBNews.com in New York, where he worked as a syndication editor. He is a 1986 graduate of the University of South Carolina.