Pitchers & managers: ‘Power

FOR SOME pitchers, shagging during batting practice is, as the Mets’ R.A. Dickey put it, “strictly utilitarian — I’m useful in that moment to pick up a ball and throw it back to the bucket.”

But to others, such as the Yankees’ Mariano R ivera, sprinting after f ly balls during BP — known among pitchers as “power shagging” — is a way to keep fit and part of their daily routine. And, even though Rivera suffered a season-ending knee injury Thursday, power shagging figures to live on throughout the game because most believe Rivera’s injury was a freak accident.

Both Tigers manager Jim Leyland and GM Dave Dombrowski said they wouldn’t ask their pitchers to stop shagging. “I have a Cy Young winner (Justin Verlander) who goes after fly balls like a wild man,” Leyland told reporters in Detroit. “I won’t take that away from him.”

Leyland added, “What was (Rivera) supposed to be doing? Sitting there eating chili while everybody’s out there in the field? Getting a sauna with everyone else working? You just can’t prevent some of this stuff. Stuff happens. But to act like the Yankees shouldn’t have had him out there, that’s ridiculous.”

“Freak things can happen all the time — someone can trip over something in the clubhouse and get hurt,” Dombrowski said in a telephone interview. “If you see one of your players doing something crazy, you’d probably say something. But they’re athletes, they want to keep moving.”

Dickey said he would say something to a teammate if he saw one chasing fly balls too intensely, especially if it was not part of that pitcher’s routine.

But, Dickey said, he believes no team should tell its pitchers not to power shag, if the pitcher finds it useful. “To tell a man he can’t run? I don’t know about that,” Dickey said.

“If you’re going to run, this