Two years ago it was Derek Jeter, who won an Academy Award for best fake hit by pitch.
Now it's Dewayne Wise, who got way too much benefit of the doubt when umpire Mike DiMuro credited him with catching a ball in foul territory that the Yankees outfielder did not catch.
The ESPN sports talk show Pardon the Interruption featured the incident, with Tony Kornheiser coming down on the side of truth and justice, while co-host Michael Wilbon merely opined this is the Major Leagues not Little League. The takeaway therefore, I suppose, is that sportsmanship and honesty are not longer in play, so to speak.
I love stories in other sports, such as golf and tennis, where an athlete fesses up, even at the risk of losing the event and prize money. Is it because baseball is a team sport that the offender is reluctant to come forward, because he doesn't want to let down the team?
Wise's cop-out: "It's not my fault" the umpire messed up.
Wise said, "Anybody in baseball would've done the same thing," which is probably true and the problem. "The umpire makes the out call -- you've got to go with it," he continued. "You can't just sit there and say, 'I didn't make the catch.'" Sure you can. Someone has got to go first.
(And don't you just love this rationale from Yankees catcher Chris Stewart who said yesterday, "You're trying to get your team to win. You're not really cheating, necessarily." It's that qualifier "necessarily" that does it for me.)
Wouldn't it be something if, just once, a team or player would say, "We don't have to win this way?" But with so much money at stake (imagine if this had cost the Yankees the game and they lost a post-season berth by that margin), you can be almost certain it will never happen.
So what are we teaching young athletes here? That it's all right to pull stunts like this, so you might as well get used to it and perfecting this aspect of your game? And if it's okay here, it's okay in other aspects of life too? Where would you start differentiating?
And by the same token, imagine if this had caused the Yankees to win the game and they got a post-season berth by that margin.
Wrong either way.
But remember, this is the league that turned a blind eye to PEDs for years and years. The league, the players and the owners will stop the cheating soon.
They are just waiting for me to hit a game winning grand slam in the bottom of the ninth at PNC Park in the seventh game of the World Series.
(Despite the fact that I have been stepping in the bucket since I was seven years old...)
Soccer players dont call handballs on themselves, Tennis players dont argue a call for the other player.
You want people who call penitlys on themselves, well other then golf you are out of luck.
NASCAR has a joke, if you aint cheating you aint trying.
Young athletes , if they are of professional caliber, will not be taught anything by such behavior as the author cites, as they have long ago internalized the actual doings of actual sports professionals throughout history and the world-- without being told.
But if we're really serious about explaining the questionable doings of adults to children, then try this one: chiseling on taxes, specious deductions and padded expenses. These lessons would be of great practical value to millions upon millions more as they negotiate through life, but I'm guessing, if the lesson is meant to be conveyed by example, the example will teach us, most often, a lot about: hypocrisy.
JohnHopwood is right, it has nothing to do with the Yankees.