Yank's Joba-lation has Tribe in a tizzy

When Joba Chamberlain finished off a one-two-three eighth inning by striking out David Dellucci Thursday at Yankee Stadium he let out a howl of delight and pumped his fist, more than a few times.

The "incident" went virtually unnoticed by the Cleveland media, from what I can tell from my Internet-based perch.

But Dellucci didn't care for Chamberlain's celebration - and the New York papers noticed Dellucci's dissatisfaction.

The Daily News - as you can plainly see - played up Joba's reaction to striking out Dellucci - the guy who ruined his evening two nights earlier with a three-run jack in the eighth inning.

In fact, the Daily News is running a flash poll about it on its Web site.

Poll Results (as of 3:30 pm EDT)

How do you feel about Joba Chamberlain's fist-pumping antics?

I like them - he's a fiery competitor	61%
I don't like them - he needs to grow up	24%
I hate them - hot-dogging at its worst	15%

Virtually every other New York-area paper mentioned Joba's jubilation, with The New York Times being the only other paper to headline it.

The New York Post, Newsday (Long Island), The Record (northern NJ suburbs) and the Star-Ledger (Newark) all did mention Joba's dance in their game stories or "notes" columns - and all had similar quotes from both Dellucci and Chamberlain.

Later in the day today, on the New York Post's Yankee blog, Jay Greenberg took Joba to task:

"What Chamberlain did yesterday offended David Dellucci and, we're sure, a lot of players who still cling to an unfortunately no-longer time-honored professional code that embarrassing an opponent embarrasses one's self and the game. ... There is a time and place. On May 8 after striking out a player who two games earlier beat you with a homer was not it."

Here are the quotes as published by the Daily News:

Dellucci:

"That's what gets him going and that's what everybody likes to see, but if a hitter was to do something like that they'd probably say it was 'bush' and you shouldn't do it."

"If he wants to yell and scream after a strikeout and dance around, I guess that gets him going. My home run was in a much bigger situation, more a key part of the game and I didn't dance around and scream."

Chamberlain:

"It's no disrespect to the hitter. It's no disrespect to the game. It's not like it's the first time I've done it. That's just who I am and that's the way it's gonna be.

Indeed it is not the first time Chamberlain has shown his emotions - good or bad - on the mound, and it brought to my mind a game just two weeks ago (April 27 to be exact) when CC Sabathia put on a similar display against the Yankees.

Here's an account of that game from MLB.com:

"In the sixth, Sabathia was in a major jam when Derek Jeter led off with a double and advanced to third on a ground out. Sabathia reared back and got both Alex Rodriguez and Shelley Duncan to go down swinging at fastballs to end the inning.

An especially animated Sabathia pumped his fist and belted out a celebratory scream.

What led to this display?

'Just everything,' Sabathia said. 'The first four starts, and that situation. I was just letting a lot of frustration out.' "

I do recall Rick Manning and Matt Underwood talking about CC's display on STO. For the most part they agreed it was just a way to let out the frustration that had been building up inside CC after his first four awful starts. (He went on to lose the April 27 game, 1-0, by the way.) At most, they concluded, it was a venial sin of baseball etiquette.

Being an emotional person myself, I would have to give Joba and CC a pass. In both cases it was clear, from-the gut emotion being expressed.

Unlike the Manny prances and his little dances with Big Papi that follow each and every homer, or the pointing-to-the-heavens acts that we see from so many players (including Victor if he ever hits another home run), the truly off-the-cuff stuff doesn't bother me.

How about you?