To me, there’s a fine line between gamesmanship and cheating in sports. For those of you that didn’t see the Derek Jeter moment the other night, it was a play that I thought crossed that fine line. Now there are many replays of it on YouTube but you can view it here. To recap, the Yankees were playing in Tampa against the Rays. He was at bat at the top of the 7th with his team down 2 – 1. Jeter lined up to bunt but was “hit” by the pitch. After hearing the sound, I watched the game and knew he didn’t get hit. The replay confirmed he didn’t get hit but Jeter put on an act afterwards to sell to the umpire that he did get hurt. The Yankees’ trainer even came out to check out Jeter’s elbow/hand.
Here’s my take on the play. I would have been fine had Jeter let the umpire make the wrong call and award him first base (which the umpire did). The fact that he played it out to be something serious, had the trainers come out, and spun around afterwards and acted in pain is just too much. It got to the point where Joe Madden came out and argues that it clearly hit Jeter’s bat. He should be more of a professional and just taken his base, not be an actor. This just sends the wrong message to kids that admire him as a player.
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