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Iwamura 'Appreciates' Boos At Yankee Stadium

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 3, 2007

NEW YORK - Five months after beginning a new phase in his career, Devil Rays 3B Akinori Iwamura finally felt he had arrived Sunday.

As he walked to the plate to lead off the game, boos rained down from the Yankee Stadium crowd. That welcome served as the local fans' response to what happened the day before, when the Rays were angered by Yankees manager Joe Torre's request that Iwamura's bat be inspected to see if it met MLB specifications, prompting Rays manager Joe Maddon's retaliatory request to have one of Alex Rodriguez's bats tossed out.

'In my first at-bat today, the fans booed, and I kind of appreciated the fact that the fans booed me,' Iwamura said through his interpreter, Masa Koyanagi. 'When I got booed by the fans, I was kind of like, 'OK, I'm one of the major-league baseball players.''

That wasn't Iwamura's only vindication Sunday. He also jumped on what turned out to be Andy Pettitte's final pitch of the game for a long two-run homer to right-center in the eighth inning. Though his confiscated bat still hadn't made its way back to him from MLB's offices by the time the Rays headed for home, it was a pretty nice day all the way around for the 28-year-old rookie.

'It was really done Saturday and nothing carried over,' Iwamura said. 'I haven't heard anything bad or wrong with my bats, so I didn't really think about it. I did everything I could today as a new day, and I did good today.'

Even before Iwamura's big moment, the controversy had played itself out.

'To me, it's over,' Maddon said before Sunday's game. 'We got it out of our systems yesterday. They did what they did and we did what we had to do. We talked about it after the game, and then you just play today.'

Torre told reporters Sunday he wasn't aware Iwamura's bat, which has a flat head rather than the rounded or cupped style other big-leaguers use, already had been inspected by umpires and rules fit for play.

'I'm assuming if he's still using it it's OK,' Torre said. 'But I think everybody should've had a little flier to that effect, too.'

Everyone knows about it now, and Iwamura is looking forward to the return of the bat that has evolved into a keepsake.

'I don't know when my bat is coming back, but that bat is kind of special, because not everybody gets that kind of moment or that kind of experience,' said Iwamura. 'I'd like to keep the bat.'

OUT OF NOWHERE: The Rays once again got a significant offensive contribution from C Dioner Navarro on Sunday as he went 3-for-4 with a homer and scored three times.

Much-maligned through the first half of the season, Navarro has been on fire for the better part of a month. In his last 25 games dating to July 27, Navarro is hitting .325 (26-for-80) with five homers and 16 RBIs.

This is the same player who hit .177 with one homer and 13 RBIs before the All-Star break.

'Navi's good. Navi's going to be fine,' Maddon said. 'I want to just continue to work with him. He's a young man. Everybody has applied pressure to him all season long in regard to, 'What's wrong? What's wrong? What's wrong?' He's a young man. He needs time, he needs at-bats, he needs coaching, and he's getting it.'

NOTEWORTHY: RF Delmon Young's fourth-inning infield single gave him a 10-game hitting streak - his fourth this season and fifth since coming to the majors last September. ... According to the Elias Sports Bureau, 1B Carlos Pena's homers in the fifth and sixth inning Friday made him the first visitor to homer in consecutive innings at Yankee Stadium since Jose Cruz Jr. of Toronto did it July 20, 2001. ... SS Josh Wilson's error in the fifth inning Sunday was his fourth in two games.

Marc Lancaster

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