FanHouse HowieClark

In the pantheon of cheap moves, that bit where A-Rod yelled "mine" to distract Blue Jays' third-baseman Howie Clark looms large. That was back in May, and Clark and the Jays have said they've put it all past them.

But today, with the Yanks visiting Toronto, the Jays sent a message that they're still kinda upset, as starter Jesse Litsch fired a pitch behind A-Rod's legs to start the second inning. A-Rod stared out at the mound while his teammates hit the dugout's top step, but nothing else came of it.

For the rest of the game, the two teams seemed on the verge of a good ol' afternoon donnybrook. Resident geezer Matt Stairs got plunked by Luis Vizcaino, Jorge Posado was hit by Brian Wolfe, and A-Rod tried to take down John McDonald with a slide (as depicted in the photo accompanying this post). But, sadly, no punches were thrown, and no warnings issued. After the game, Joe Torre said he didn't think the Jays were sending a message with that pitch to A-Rod.

"They played us four games at our place," Torre said. "Unless they didn't care about doing it there and they did it here, that doesn't make sense."

At least there's still two more games to go. Plenty of time for all sorts of hi-jinks.

The last time the Blue Jays and Yankees squared off, A-Rod expanded his cheap manuever repertoire by infamously shouting "mine" as he rounded the bases, fooling Jays' third baseman Howie Clark into laying off a pop fly that he thought shortstop John McDonald just called for.

Well, more than a month has past. And as the Jays head to Yankee Stadium to square off with A-Rod again, they appeared to have put it all behind them.

"No one's here to pick fights," said McDonald, shrugging off the idea that Toronto might retaliate. "I think it might've been made into a bigger deal than it was on the field. ... Howie and I have talked about it already. We talked about it right after the game. If we had just caught the ball, it wouldn't have mattered."

"That was almost two months ago," said [Manager John] Gibbons, unwilling to offer much more on the subject. "We forgot all about that it was so long ago. That's all I have to say about it."

Okay, so everyone's saying the right things. But with the Jays dropping tonight's series opener and falling a couple games behind the Yanks in the East, they may need to take a page from A-Rod's book if they want to climb back into the race.

The other day, we discussed the fracas between the Yankees and the Blue Jays after Alex Rodriguez distracted rookie third baseman Howie Clark with some sort of verbal exchange as Clark was attempting to field a short pop fly at third base.

Clark claimed A-Rod said "Mine", while A-Rod says he said "Ha." Either way, Rodriguez was clearly trying to distract Clark, something many of you felt was a bush-league move. I, on the other hand, have a hard time drumming up much concern either way here, but apparently Joe Torre does not share my apathy:

"He may have been excited about the fact that we were leading the ballgame," Torre said Friday before his team's series opener at Boston. "It was probably inappropriate to do it at the time he did it, but you can't change it, unfortunately."

"They were angry," Torre said. "Oh, there's no question. I can't say I blame them, but what are you going to do about it? What's happened has happened."

"It's probably something he shouldn't have done," Torre said. "I don't sense he's going to do it again."

Like I said, I don't really get the outrage here. I also have a feeling that people do this sort of thing far more often than anyone is letting on, and that since everyone likes to tag A-Rod with this sort of stuff, he's an easy target.

But come on, shouldn't we be talking about more important things ... like A-Rod's personal life?

Previously on the FanHouse:
Alex Rodriguez Does Not Always Play Fair
A-Rod Likes the 'She-Male, Muscular Type'
Alex Rodriguez Busted With Blonde at Strip Club

Photo Credit: Getty Images