Hand It Over, Akinori Iwamura

With two outs in the second on a 2-2 count to Tampa Bay Devil Rays' lefty Akinori Iwamura, New York Yankees' manager Joe Torre emerged from the dugout to speak with the home plate umpire.

D'Rays manager Joe Maddon was then called out onto the field, and after a conference which questioned the flatness of the end of his bat, Iwamura was forced to hand it over. As the lumber was on its way to the commissioner's office for inspection, the confused-looking infielder struck out swinging to end the inning.

Not to be outdone, Maddon approached the umps during Alex Rodriguez's next plate appearance. Questioning the legality of his bat, Maddon said there must be something inside of it since the third baseman has 45 homers on the first of September.

Once the lip-flapping subsided, A-Rod was forced to surrender his bat, as well. That didn't seem to affect his performance however, as the best offensive player in the majors went 3-for-4 with a homer and 4 RBIs to lead his Yanks in a 9-6 victory.

"It was just retaliation," said the Tampa Bay skipper. "There's nothing wrong with Alex Rodriguez... it was tit for tat entirely."

Well, at least he was honest.

[MLB.com]