{"id":1012,"date":"2010-09-19T16:32:00","date_gmt":"2010-09-19T21:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/?p=1012"},"modified":"2010-09-19T16:32:00","modified_gmt":"2010-09-19T21:32:00","slug":"analyzing-the-derek-jeter-hit-by-pitch-video","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/archives\/1012","title":{"rendered":"Analyzing the Derek Jeter Hit by Pitch (Video)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Before I begin really getting into this, I should state that I love and respect Derek Jeter<\/strong>.\u00a0 Through his career, I have been about as up and down with the guy as any player in the game.\u00a0 Nomar was without a question my favorite player during all of his years in Boston, and the man that he was while he was there is the image that I will always envision as the franchise guy.\u00a0 Nomar was Christ-like while in Boston in my opinion, and so Jeter was the anti-Christ.\u00a0 Once Nomar was traded, however, it became really easy to fall in love with Jeter.\u00a0 Derek Jeter is everything baseball considers and hopes itself to be<\/em>.\u00a0 If you follow this site, you know that I previously mentioned that when Jeter retires, I think he should be handed the American presidency.\u00a0 Forget that.\u00a0 The man deserves a coronation.<\/p>\n

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Wednesday night in Tampa in a one-run game, Derek Jeter was awarded first via hit-by-pitch.\u00a0 Chad Qualls had just entered the game, and Jeter squared (but had no intention of actually bunting) and was hit by the pitch.\u00a0 Or so the scorebook says.\u00a0 In reality Mr. November fouled the bunt off with the knob and played it off like he was thumped in the wrist\u2026or forearm\u2026or somewhere.\u00a0 Jeter was awarded first base after the umpire immediately through his hands up signaling a dead ball.\u00a0 Curtis went deep to give the Yanks a one-run lead in the following AB.\u00a0 Then everyone freaked out.<\/p>\n

[hdplay id=20 ]<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sure, if you are Joe Maddon<\/strong>, you probably should have gotten yourself tossed before Granderson\u2019s AB began.\u00a0 He successfully accomplished that.\u00a0 If you are a Ray, you should probably be pretty upset since you lost the lead, but you quickly got it back and still won the game.\u00a0 End of story?\u00a0 Nope.\u00a0 Unfortunately ESPN and other media outlets decided to challenge Jeter, the game, and ethics in general.<\/p>\n

What Jeter accomplished (and I believe \u201caccomplished\u201d to be the correct term) is not instinctive.\u00a0 While Jeter\u2019s instincts will likely go down as the greatest in the history of the sport (remember when he relayed the ball to the dish against Oakland?), this is not a moment that represented them.\u00a0 This represented work.\u00a0 Tireless work.\u00a0 It takes practice to seamlessly play off things that don\u2019t happen – to the degree necessary to convince a four-man MLB crew – as though they did.<\/p>\n

I have met a lot of guys who could play off a topper to the 3B or SS as though it hit them in the foot.\u00a0 I was OK at that.\u00a0 Some guys can get beaned with any bender up in the zone, even over the plate.\u00a0 I was great at that.\u00a0 I think if I knobbed a bunt I would have just stood there confused praying the damn thing went foul.\u00a0 Jeter deserves to be commended for doing what it takes to reach base in a one-run game in September.\u00a0 The man surely put the time in necessary to earn that base for his team.<\/p>\n

The sports world does not seem to see it that way, especially those unfortunate fans that prefer sports that are not baseball.\u00a0 As Brett mentioned a couple of months ago, the whole country now has HD access and 50\u201d plasmas<\/a> to make calling games really easy and accurate from a couch.\u00a0 As a direct consequence, these same fans have called for replay in every sport.\u00a0 Even baseball, which deservedly is held to a somewhat higher standard, has adopted the use of replay in bomb detection.<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t really blame the people in charge for that one simply because the viewing angles involved with some of those calls are impossible for anyone standing on the field.\u00a0 Stuff that happens at the dish must be protected, however.\u00a0 I have heard a lot of people who call themselves avid NFL fans explain why baseball needs to use replay to call everything from strikes to safes.\u00a0 I tell them that this suggestion has no place within a game like baseball.\u00a0 Calls happen every single pitch in baseball.\u00a0 We are talking 500 pitches some games.<\/p>\n

These games would be insanely long, boring, and stupid were the game to adopt a more liberal relay rule.\u00a0 Balls-and-strikes are about as extreme an expansion of the replay rules as exists, but with any expansion, some of the game\u2019s history and culture dies.\u00a0 This is how I feel about it:\u00a0 baseball is played by men, belongs to men, and should be judged by men.\u00a0 This isn\u2019t basketball or football.\u00a0 Baseball deserves better.<\/p>\n

Umpires suck.\u00a0 No offense to Brett and Griff who have spent a lot of time in umpire uniforms.\u00a0 I have spent some time in one too, regrettably.\u00a0 Players and umpires have no business getting along.\u00a0 I don\u2019t trust them.\u00a0 I can\u2019t imagine why they would trust me.\u00a0 They can take the game from any player they want at any time.\u00a0 The player in many ways is at the mercy of the umpire, and it takes an incredible amount of effort to gain the kind of relationship that Jeter has with many of them.\u00a0 I believe that the primary reason no one in the crew sent Jeter back to the dish with a strike is because he is Derek Jeter, and the umpires just have too much respect for the guy.<\/p>\n

Jeter wins.\u00a0 He represented the tying run.\u00a0 Jeter has played the situation off as though it is amusing to him.\u00a0 Why wouldn\u2019t it be?\u00a0 Umpires miss calls all the time.\u00a0 The greats just have a way of getting the bad calls to go their way and the way of their team.\u00a0\u00a0 This happens in all walks of life.\u00a0 Not just sports.<\/p>\n

The issue is not with Jeter in my opinion.\u00a0 Jeter has just been the game\u2019s spokesman for a long time and is directly involved in this particular example.\u00a0 America simply views baseball as a breeding ground for cheaters and believes that it is entirely too attached to antiquated mores. \u00a0I think more of Derek Jeter because of this incident.<\/p>\n

The man will do anything for his team including demonize himself for a period of time while America copes with the thought that even Jeter isn\u2019t above a little rule-bending.\u00a0 Let me end things with a question: should Jeter have volunteered to return to his AB after the ball was called dead?\u00a0 Is there precedent of this ever happening?\u00a0 How about in September against a Divisional rival at their yard?<\/p>\n

Long live Jeter.
\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Before I begin really getting into this, I should state that I love and respect Derek Jeter.\u00a0 Through his career, I have been about as up and down with the guy as any player in the game.\u00a0 Nomar was without a question my favorite player during all of his years in Boston, and the man […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15,6,11,13,14,775],"tags":[828,618,824,825,826,827,71,549,770],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1012"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1012"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1012\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1018,"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1012\/revisions\/1018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}