Noonan!
Posted by SBG on Thursday, May 31st, 2007 at 10:11 am
A-Rod distracts Blue Jay infielder by yelling "Ha!" at him. Golfers everywhere are enraged.
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Is this bush league by A-Rod? Not really. On par with Gagne's phantom play in the 1991 WS. If he'd have yelled, "Mine!" or "I got it!" that'd be one thing, but blame the Jays IF for this one. Still, if someone wanted to slap the smarmy smirk of A-Rod's face, I think that's within the boundaries of baseball etiquette.
When it comes to this kind of thing A-Rod will always be under greater scrutiny. Honestly he brought it on himself.
To be honest, I don't know why A-Rod gets crap for this or for the slapping-the-ball-out-of-Arroyo's-glove incident. In each case, he was trying something that is borderline within the rules to help his team out. If the ump doesn't allow it and calls him out, so be it. In every sport players try something that may not be legal - see holding by linemen in football, fouls in basketball/hockey, etc. In every case, the player may know what they are trying is illegal, but they see if they can get away with it. The worst case scenario is he gets called out, which he would have either way. (I suppose he could also get a fastball in the ribs depending on the other team's pov).
I know when playing high school basketball, I would often try to call for the ball after our team missed a shot hoping the big guy who rebounded would throw the outlet pass to me. It only worked once or twice where they passed to me (on the wrong team), but I never felt too badly about it.
I don't know. I think Rule 2 would apply to the "slapping-the-ball-out-of-Arroyo’s-glove incident."
Might not be a well-enforced rule, but I think what A-Rod was quite obviously doing intentionally in that situation constitutes interference.
Note the "or confuses" part of that rule which could very well apply to the situation SBG is pointing out.
Right. Glancing further down the comments, I see you read the same Zumsteg post I did.
Alex heard that SBG was trying to take his "Eddie Haskell of baseball" title away from him....
Excellent work, fw. You know when a remark is aimed at you!
I think all the attention on this is hilarious. Who cares?! He did nothing wrong.
Derek Zumsteg with his take on this over at The Cheater's Guide to Baseball blog. Basically, if you look at the literal rules of the game, baserunners distracting fielders in any way is against the rules. However, if the rule is not enforced (for instance, like the rule that says you're not allowed to impede a runner's path to a base unless you have the ball), it seems like something that more players should try to exploit. (That is, of course, if they're willing to be considered an ass.)
It's also worth noting, I think, that this sort of behavior is not necessarily tolerated at all levels of baseball.