12/21/24
September 16, 2010
Derek Jeter Admits Faking Hit-By-Pitch: New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter faked being hit by a pitch in Wednesday's game against the Tampa Bay Rays. A pitch struck the end of the bat and Jeter held his arm before being awarded first base. He later scored. "It's part of the game," Jeter said. "My job is to get on base." (Video.)
Rays take back first despite Jeter's quest for an Oscar.
So, after a morning of ESPN saying that the umpire puts you on base so Jeter wouldn't say "no" and making this about replay, I'm reminded of all the whining that went on about diving during the World Cup.
posted by bperk at 07:54 AM on September 16, 2010
So how is Derek Jeter lying about getting hit by a baseball any less despicable than diving in soccer?
posted by apoch at 08:14 AM on September 16, 2010
He's Derek Jeter, so it's okay.
It's "gamesmanship". It's "playing to win". It's "doing what it takes".
It's being a "True Yankee".
Imagine the reaction if that was ARod...
posted by grum@work at 08:20 AM on September 16, 2010
Yeah, I am pretty pissed about it. I put my comments in the Rays/Yankees thread down the page. This is exactly the same as diving. Baseball Tonight, instead of criticizing Jeter, made it about the need for replay. The morning idiots on ESPN were saying "well, what's Jeter supposed to do? Not take the base when the umpire gives it to him?" Umm, he is supposed to show a little bit of sportsmanship and not do a world-class acting job to pretend that he was hit by the ball.
posted by bperk at 08:35 AM on September 16, 2010
That's pretty cheap of Jeter. I thought he might have been reacting to the bat glancing off his forearm, but other replays make that unlikely. I'm glad the Rays went on to win the game.
posted by rcade at 08:44 AM on September 16, 2010
Of course, the way Jeter is absolutely sucking in September (.305 OBP), he needs all the help he can get to get on base.
posted by grum@work at 09:04 AM on September 16, 2010
So, will he get plunked by the Rays during their next game?
/wind up...pitch...*plunk*..."Did you feel that, Derek?"
posted by NoMich at 09:40 AM on September 16, 2010
Hopefully the umpires are now wise to Jeter's game and it hurts the Yankees in the playoffs. But probably not ... he's Derek Jeter, so it's okay.
posted by cixelsyd at 10:16 AM on September 16, 2010
Just Yankees being Yankees.
posted by graymatters at 10:43 AM on September 16, 2010
I'm glad the Rays went on to win the game.
As someone mentioned on another site, and I shameless repeat here:
"Jeters never prosper."
posted by grum@work at 11:32 AM on September 16, 2010
And I also fully expect that every outfielder who catches a line drive on a short hop, jumps up and holds the ball up like he caught it, and a out is ruled, to immediately stop the game and say, "No, I have to admit it. I did NOT catch the ball. Please send the batter to first base and all other runners to whatever base they may have made on a base hit." A runner being out at second stealing and the umpire gets the call wrong should get up and say, "No. I was out" as should a runner called safe at first when the throw obviously beat him? Yeah, right.
Again, this is the human element everyone loves so much about baseball! I think the situation was ridiculous, but the game, as with all sports, is/are full of tremendous actors.
posted by dyams at 12:06 PM on September 16, 2010
There are more games to come, and if the Yanks will find themselves needing some discretionary favor from the umps at an important moment, it might not be there.
posted by beaverboard at 12:28 PM on September 16, 2010
What dyams said.
Even in little league we were taught to "lean into" a pitch if we desperately needed runners. Few had the balls to do it, though. Another thing we were taught was to never admit it, Jeter, you noob.
posted by smithnyiu at 12:34 PM on September 16, 2010
When you lean into a pitch, it's to actually get hit and take first base.
Baseball's unwritten rulebook probably allows Jeter's action. But does it allow him to embarrass the umpires by admitting what he did?
posted by rcade at 12:48 PM on September 16, 2010
The umpire sent him to first almost immediately - he should have just gone, not stood around getting someone to check out his arm like he might be injured. Classic liar's pitfall - overelaboration and the voluntary provision of more information than is needed.
It might be part of the game, but it's not in the spirit of the game - of any game - to break the rules. The only way it ever stops (I'm thinking mostly of soccer and diving for this, but it could work in baseball too) is for an independent body to rule on slow motion replays in retrospect and apply heavy fines and suspensions for... ungentlemanly conduct or whatever the PC term for that might be.
posted by JJ at 01:02 PM on September 16, 2010
he should have just gone
Ever watch a Jeter at bat? I've never seen an AB where he didn't try to get as much face time as possible.
posted by cixelsyd at 01:07 PM on September 16, 2010
I'd love to say I'd never heard of him, having been to precisely half a baseball game in my life (if you don't count watching 3 innings from under the bleachers in San Francisco), but my ex-wife had a Jeter T-shirt. She called him "Jetter" (to rhyme with "Irish setter") though, so that made it fine.
posted by JJ at 01:13 PM on September 16, 2010
not stood around getting someone to check out his arm like he might be injured.
I'm mostly fine with him faking getting hit but did he really have a trainer come out? I'm at work and didn't see the video yet.
posted by tron7 at 01:22 PM on September 16, 2010
A runner being out at second stealing and the umpire gets the call wrong should get up and say, "No. I was out" as should a runner called safe at first when the throw obviously beat him? Yeah, right.
If the runner stealing second, after being incorrectly called safe, decides to stand up and point at the base and go "I stole that bitch!" while doing a little celebratory jig, and then after the game decides to tell everyone "Oh hell no. I knew I got caught stealing!", then it'll be the same thing that Jeter did.
His acting job was WAY over the top (even bringing in the trainer to look at his hand), and then saying he knew he was faking it after the game.
His response should have been "When the ball made contact, it stung my hand. I wasn't sure if it hit my hand, or the bat. It hurt momentarily, so I wasn't sure."
posted by grum@work at 01:24 PM on September 16, 2010
I'm mostly fine with him faking getting hit but did he really have a trainer come out? I'm at work and didn't see the video yet.
The trainer came out and mimicked a bunch of "injury tests" on his hand.
"Does this hurt? How about this? Can you move this?" sort of stuff.
Important note: I really hope people don't think this is another reason to have instant replay on non-home run calls. Imagine the insanity if they DID rule it hit his bat. How do the umpires work around that one?
posted by grum@work at 01:26 PM on September 16, 2010
Happens all the time. I'm surprised you're surprised.
posted by scuubie at 01:30 PM on September 16, 2010
So Jeter "lies" his way to 1st base? First of all, it's just a blown call by the umpire. True enough, Jeter embellished it and later bragged about it, but if there were any doubt, the umpire could have checked with either the 1st or 3rd base umpire to see if one of them had a better view. It's not different from a second look at a checked swing. The larger issue here is the propensity for those who wear Yankee caps to commit crimes. Steal second? OK; Steal third? OK; Take first by false pretenses? Not OK, but understandable. But a massive crime wave in NYC? Unthinkable!
posted by Howard_T at 01:52 PM on September 16, 2010
One reason I'm somewhat anti-baseball is I got sick of baseball fans complaining about how boring soccer is during the 1994 World Cup. I'm glad this happened so that the next time a baseball fan bitches about soccer diving, there is a crystal clear example that Jeter is a fraud.
Jeter should receive a 7-game suspension. The commissioner has the power to protect the game, right? There has to be a deterence. If he tried to fake it but failed to convince the ump, would there have been any consequence? No, he would not have gotten tossed for faking unless he swore at the umpire. Rivaldo did not receive a suspension for one of the worst faking jobs in one of soccer's largest games. If I had my druthers, Jeter would get a 7-game suspension and Rivaldo would have been suspended from all soccer, club and country, for six-months. Any soccer player that grabs his face when it was not touched should be suspended. Any baseball player that needed a trainer to come out to tend to a foul ball should also be suspended.
posted by Aardhart at 02:05 PM on September 16, 2010
Just Yankees being Yankees.
For god's sake. Act your age.
posted by lil_brown_bat at 02:29 PM on September 16, 2010
I was waiting for that smackdown, LBB. It was such a fat pitch I was thinking you'd go yard, but instead you bunted the runners along.
posted by rcade at 02:45 PM on September 16, 2010
but if there were any doubt, the umpire could have checked with either the 1st or 3rd base umpire to see if one of them had a better view.
They did confer. They did not change their minds.
I have no problem with Jeter taking first base because the umpire thinks the ball hit him. It isn't his position to try to reverse the call, and I wouldn't expect anyone to do so.
I do have a problem with Jeter going WAY overboard to sell the contact, even getting the manager and trainer involved. Just shake your hand a bit, rub it, tuck it under your arm for a second and then wave off the trainer when he comes out. Then take your base.
I also have a problem with Jeter smirking as he admits after the game that the ball didn't hit him. I've already stated how he should have handled it.
posted by grum@work at 03:04 PM on September 16, 2010
It was such a fat pitch I was thinking you'd go yard, but instead you bunted the runners along.
It sure looked like a HBP to me.
posted by BornIcon at 03:05 PM on September 16, 2010
It sure looked like a HBP to me.
Wait, the trainer is coming out for effect.
posted by smithnyiu at 03:11 PM on September 16, 2010
I was waiting for that smackdown, LBB.
Indeed. "waiting"? Given how hard up you are for hobbies, rcade, I can suggest any number of enjoyable pastimes that would be more fulfilling than this one. Eating library paste, perhaps?
posted by lil_brown_bat at 03:23 PM on September 16, 2010
My new hobby: Searching for the tamest jab at the Yankees that lbb will respond to.
posted by tron7 at 03:45 PM on September 16, 2010
When a crappy pitch comes barreling in on a batter in that way, the pitcher (and the team in the field (the Rays)) can't be too flabbergasted this mistake was made. Make a better pitch and the confusion is adverted. Counting on major league umpires to see things the correct way is asking a bit much.
posted by dyams at 04:00 PM on September 16, 2010
ACTING! THANK YOU!
posted by Joey Michaels at 04:00 PM on September 16, 2010
I await the return of Master Thespian like some men wait for The Rapture. Also: none of this seems like a big deal except that it was Derek Jeter. Maybe I've lost some passion or something, but I can't get past "Meh" for this. And it looked to me like the trainer was up and at 'em before Jeter said anything. He probably loses his job if it takes him more than 15 seconds to get to Jeter, A-Rod, etc. Just like the Brooklyn Domino's delivery guy and Sabathia.
posted by yerfatma at 04:18 PM on September 16, 2010
I think this is a little bit of a bigger deal because it was an exceptional amount of acting, it was a very big game, it gave the Yankees the lead after Granderson hit a home run, and Jeter's comments afterward were not Jeter-like.
posted by bperk at 04:23 PM on September 16, 2010
This to me is at best a very iffy issue. In basketball it is common to try to draw a foul, or to make contact look like a charge with a little acting. In football every lineman tries to get away with holding and nobody expects them them to say hey that play was a touchdown but I held the rusher so let call the TD back in the spirit of good sportsmanship. What is the difference between Jeter doing a little acting job or a catcher moving his glove to frame a close pitch to look more like a strike? Receivers always try to make those short hop receptions look like clean catches. That is their job and this is all part of the game. Sportsmanship and gamesmanship are close but not the same thing.
I think there is a big difference between cheating and trying to influence close calls to go your way, which to me is part of playing aggressive. The officials need to do their job. If the league has an issue then it just makes a better case for replay. No player can be expected to or be placed in position to hurt his team by saying, I really did not catch that ball I short hopped it. It is up to the officials to make the calls and the players to do whatever they can to try to ensure the calls go their way.
If this is going to be an issue for leagues then they should put a no acting rule in the rule book. But until they specifically say acting to influence officiating is against the rules ( which is almost impossible ) and introduce a penalty for doing so, my opinion is acting while playing is perfectly legal part of the game. There is so much acting in an NBA game regarding fouls it is just part of the game the refs learn to ignore it and call them like they see em. The day officials make calls based on player actions or acting as opposed to what they actually see, is the day an official should be terminated. The only problem I have is with baseball's refusal to institute a reply so that a clearly missed call by the ump can be overturned.
posted by Atheist at 05:22 PM on September 16, 2010
I'm just glad the right team won. I don't have any answers, and I'm against replay, but this would have sucked if the Yankees had won and it was an even bigger game.
I don't blame Jeter. I think a lot of players would have done the same thing. But his image is so pristine and that's why it looks bad, especially with the acting and his inability to get on base lately (I think the trainers were coming out anyway, but he wasn't exactly pushing them away and letting them know he was fine).
Hopefully umps will remember this the next time they rely on Jeter's word.
posted by justgary at 05:25 PM on September 16, 2010
I don't think what Jeter did was wrong, not at all, not in baseball terms. So what was my reaction? Well, I think what Jeter did was kind of sad. Has he become so impotent as a hitter do you realize the guy now has an 86 OPS+? that now he's willing to hop around and have trainers look at his forearm when the ball clearly did not hit him? That's what Derek Jeter has become? And then afterward, he's sheepishly defending the move by saying it's his job to get on base, well, is that what's behind the Derek Jeter aura? Is that what he has stood for all these years?...
...I guess in the end, what I take from it is this: I save my deep admiration for people who choose fair play over a momentary advantage. But that's not how most people play big league baseball. That's not how managers want people to play big league baseball. That's not how most fans WANT people to play big league baseball. Rising above that, finding a higher sense of fair play in today's era of sports, well, it's a hard thing to do. It's especially hard when you're a great player hitting .260 for the New York Yankees.
posted by justgary at 05:53 PM on September 16, 2010
My only beef with it is him saying he wasn't hit after the game. You wanna act like you were hit, dive to draw a penalty/foul, spin your head around 360 degrees to get a facemask call, fine...but don't rub the officials' noses in it afterward...
posted by MeatSaber at 06:01 PM on September 16, 2010
If this is going to be an issue for leagues then they should put a no acting rule in the rule book
Correct me if I am wrong, and I often am, but doesn't hockey still give penalties for diving and embellishment? And doesn't basketball have a penalty for flopping?
posted by graymatters at 06:45 PM on September 16, 2010
Love Posnanski's take. He crushes Jeter with sympathy for reaching the sucking point of his career.
I'll remember this line the next time an issue comes up with rule-bending in baseball: "Baseball prides itself on its spirit. It began as a game of scofflaws, a cast of hard-core men who created the modern rule book by stretching the very limits of the game."
posted by rcade at 06:48 PM on September 16, 2010
Baseball would be better off if it did away with umpires and the players called the game themselves, like kids do on playgrounds. The umpires suck. They miss shitloads of calls. And usually everyone on the field, on the bench, and most in the stands see the call correctly, while the only one that matters, the umpires, see something completely different.
Jeter should have just let the shitty pitch hit him.
posted by dyams at 07:10 PM on September 16, 2010
Baseball would be better off if it did away with umpires and the players called the game themselves
Funny. Growing up (from about 12 -19) I played a ton of pickup basketball games, every chance I got. Different parks, different people, different ages, different races... friends and complete strangers. And of course you called your own fouls.
The vast majority of the time everything went smoothly. The few times it didn't it was usually worked out pretty easily. I can't recall finishing a game and thinking bad calls decided the winner. I'm not saying it never happened, but rare enough that I can't remember a single instance.
Of course, that wouldn't work in professional sports (and basketball, without balls and strikes, is easier to call), but I'm betting that Jeter wouldn't have faked it if he had to make the call. That would feel like cheating. It would feel personal.
But with an umpire Jeter can place the blame on him, say that he was just going by what the umpire ruled. I do believe that officials and umpires allow players to get away with ignoring the correct call because someone else got the call wrong.
posted by justgary at 10:31 PM on September 16, 2010
It's a bit ridiculous. It's not a huge transgression. It's getting away with one. What, you gonna tell me all those outfielders who slide and trap the ball, or trap it against the fence, and then turn around and raise their hand and lie about making the catch, should overrule an umpire's call of out?
You peoples is ka-razy.
posted by WeedyMcSmokey at 12:02 AM on September 17, 2010
Witness the agony of a ball never touching you.
posted by justgary at 12:25 AM on September 17, 2010
You wanna act like you were hit, dive to draw a penalty/foul, spin your head around 360 degrees to get a facemask call, fine...but don't rub the officials' noses in it afterward...
That's my take. Freebies come along every so often: if you get one, take it, don't make a big fuss about it, and don't gobshite about it afterwards.
posted by etagloh at 01:55 AM on September 17, 2010
Gotta love all the Yankee/Jeter hating here. Sure, I agree he shouldn't have said what he did after the game, but come on. If that was cheating then so is:
Framing pitches: EVERY single catcher does it on ANY pitch thats on the edge. How is faking the final location of the pitch different than what Jeter faked?
Runner/Base Coach making the safe sign and yelling, "SAFE!" if the play is close to hopefully influence the ump.
Scuffing up the back line of the batters box so its hard to tell how far back their foot is.
Theres millions of little things almost every player does, and sometimes it happens during a big game and a camera catches it (not that Jeter didn't help that at all). Big deal.
posted by Andy1087 at 02:22 AM on September 17, 2010
I'll preface this by admitting I am a Yankee hater--most Mets fans are--but that really has little to do with the observation I want to make. To all those who are eager to defend Jeter for "doing my job"--and here I am including Joe Maddon who admitted he'd defend his players for doing the same--I have one question: where is the line between Jeter's version of cheating and that of Bonds/Clemens/McGwire (i.e. steroids, etc.)? Aren't they both about gaining an advantage? Or is the difference about doing it for the team as opposed to for one's personal advantage? Most of us agree that we don't want our children following the example of Bonds and co. But is Jeter any better an example? Don't both come down to winning at any cost?
Just a question.
posted by billinnagoya at 06:39 AM on September 17, 2010
..where is the line between Jeter's version of cheating and that of Bonds/Clemens/McGwire (i.e. steroids, etc.)? Aren't they both about gaining an advantage?
I guess the easy answer is that taking PED's to enhance your athletic performance is illegal while what Jeter did isn't.
posted by BornIcon at 07:43 AM on September 17, 2010
I guess the easy answer is that taking PED's to enhance your athletic performance is illegal while what Jeter did isn't.
This.
Again, it isn't "not telling the truth" that I have a problem with. It wasn't Jeter's job to correct the umpire.
It's the overacting and smirky response in the clubhouse that tarnishes his image.
posted by grum@work at 08:39 AM on September 17, 2010
It's the overacting and smirky response in the clubhouse that tarnishes his image.
I agree with this statement. While I think the response was a poor choice, Jeter is smart enough to understand replay will show beyond any doubt the ball never hit him. He should have said he wanted to get on base and did what he had to do, period.
I still can't get past the idea a umpire roughly two feet or less from the incident can totally miss what happened and automatically motion him to first. These guys are supposed to be the best umpires in the sport, working the most important series in baseball, and can't make this call? Major League Baseball needs to demand better performance from umpires.
posted by dyams at 08:52 AM on September 17, 2010
smirky response in the clubhouse that tarnishes his image
It didn't come off as smirky to me, at least the bit I saw on ESPN. It was more like, "What am I going to do, lie to you after you watched 15 slo-mo replays?" He pauses like he's considering what the hell to do, then gives up the truth.
posted by yerfatma at 10:07 AM on September 17, 2010
BornIcon wrote: I guess the easy answer is that taking PED's to enhance your athletic performance is illegal while what Jeter did isn't.
Without getting into hairsplitting, when B/C/M did what they did, PEDs were NOT illegal (at least as far as I understand both US law and MLB rules). Yet we still condemn them for it. Still, Jeter gets praised (by some) for doing something that was perfectly legal but clearly immoral (i.e. his dramatics were tantamount to lying). So, where is the line?
grum@work wrote It wasn't Jeter's job to correct the umpire.
That part I really have no problem with. Had he quietly accepted the base, without the dramatics, I would defend him too. Without the dramatics there would be no charge of dishonesty or lying. But, as you point out, to have engaged in the dramatics, and then to show up the umpires afterward by admitting, with that SIG (sh** eating grin), that he got away with something, strikes me as NOT being the sort of hero I want my kids to emulate.
Obviously, it is not a perfect world. If it were, the Mets would be the perennial NL and WS champs. Ditto the Chunichi Dragons in the Japan Series. (And both the Yankees and the Yomiuri Giants would be 0 for the season--if only it were a perfect world!!)
Still, I'd like a little more class from the players; especially if they are pulling down the sort of salaries Jeter and company do. After all, what are they telling our kids? Do whatever you have to do to win? That is not the sort of lesson I would like my kids to learn.
posted by billinnagoya at 10:21 AM on September 17, 2010
It didn't come off as smirky to me
I love Jeter, but practically everything he ever says sounds a bit smirky. He has survived a long, successful career in the Big Apple by having the attitude he has. But whether or not he means to, he always has a cocky, condescending-type tone during interviews. It's worked for him, and the fact he has managed to avoid the pitfalls so many other New York athletes have fallen prey to is amazing to some extent.
posted by dyams at 10:51 AM on September 17, 2010
"You're all acting like this is the first time this has happened. You think that's the first time it's happened? Anybody? Bueller? Bueller? I really don't see what the big deal is." -- Derek Jeter last night with two words I added
posted by rcade at 09:47 AM on September 18, 2010
Something, something... economics?
posted by WeedyMcSmokey at 01:52 PM on September 18, 2010
It's the overacting and smirky response in the clubhouse that tarnishes his image.
That I doubt.
PEDs were NOT illegal
Taking PED's without a prescription IS illegal.
posted by BornIcon at 04:50 PM on September 19, 2010
Rays take back first despite Jeter's quest for an Oscar.
Seriously, that was such crap. And, then he is proud of it afterward. I guess this is how he has to get on base these days.