WHY BURNETT'S NO BAD BOY

Don’t let the grimace on the face of AJ Burnett when he steps off the mound fool you. This is no bad boy…

Okay, he has more ink than the Sunday edition of the New York Times. He had long hair before coming to the Yankees. He drives a pimped-out car with black rims that’s something out of a Batman movie. But he is not a bad boy, and here’s why:

• CHARACTER: AJ has it. If he has a bad game, and we know there’s been a few, he never blamed anyone else but himself. Sometimes, he judges himself a little too harshly. But he will be the first one to tell you his mechanics weren’t there, and that he needs work on it. It’s not that easy for a pitcher to lose the ego trip (other wise known as Curt Schilling’s disease, which I refer to as “Schilling-it-is"). AJ is a guy who shoots straight from the hip, says it like it is, goes to work, and gets it done.

• NO WHINING IN BASEBALL: AJ doesn’t whine. He takes full responsibility for the difficulties he's had when Posada was catching him, despite the fact that, in my opinion, it was a 50/50 split. Jorge was having trouble blocking pitches and catching that nasty curve of his. Yet, AJ made a statement to the press that it was something that he needed to fix to get the groove between them going. We heard rumors of meltdowns in the clubhouse, yes. What we didn’t hear, though, was AJ complain or blame a catcher for a bad game.

• PIE: Some people thought that bringing AJ’s ERA back down was a pie-in-the-sky dream, and speaking of pie, AJ’s famous walk-off win pie in the face has now become a tradition at Yankee Stadium. Not only did it become expected, but some of us Yankee fans actually refer to a walk-off win as “winning the pie”. Think about it…here is a pitcher, who was congratulating another player for a win, whether he pitched the game or not. Do you think you’d ever see Pedro do such a thing? No way.

AJ is a great addition to the Yankee roster and I’m looking forward to seeing that tattooed arm shut down anyone in his path. He may be a bad-ass on the mound, but he’s one good guy and I’m glad he stayed.

By the way, here's highlights of AJ's game on Saturday. Read it HERE.



--Christy Lee, BYB Staff Writer



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