skutir, A-Rod didn’t grab Arroyo’s hand. He slapped Arroyo in the forearm with his open hand, trying to make it look like the normal running motion. And yes, those two things are the same. If you’re running normally and you bump the tagging player and he drops the ball, you’re safe. That it is more common in other circumstances doesn’t make it any different. The difference is, putting oyur shoulder down is part of running and reaching out to slap the tagger’s arm is not. Rodriguez tried to disguise the latter as the former and failed, and that’s why he was out. Correct call by the umpires.
Trunk, let’s see if you can understand the difference here.
A false start penalty is a clear violation of the rules, in that the offensive lineman begins moving before the snap. It’s easily noticeable, and very black-and-white. There’s no way to mask it as anything other than what it was.
A-Rod’s infraction was less so. There are conditions under which he would have been safe, and he tried to make those conditions occur. They didn’t. He was out. But, until the umpires tell him to get off the field, he’s allowed to plead his case. Which he did. Not well enough to get it reversed, but he did what he could. Then he DID take his lumps, and sat down. Did he… umm… let’s say… I dunno- throw some bats at the umpires? No, that was one of those holy underdog Red Sox that did that. No Pit thread about Ortiz from you, though.
And, if you can, Trunk, answer me this: How did what Rodrguez did hurt the Yankees? There was nothing but upside to what he did. If he doesn’t try to dislodge the ball, he’s out. He tries and fails, still out. Succeeds and the umps rule against him, he’s still out. His team is behind and he’s in a position to turn an out into a run. In the worst case, he’s out, but in the best, he’s safe and Jeter scores.
Nobody in football willingly false starts. But batters lean into pitches, catchers line up and pull balls back into the strike zone, baserunners slide hard to break up DPs, all of which stretches the rules because there’s somehting to be gained.
As for after the game, if Rodriguez is asked about the call, what’s he SUPPOSED to say? “I tried to cheat and it didn’t work?” Hell, no, he’s not, and only a moron would expect him to say that. He’s going to say “I wuz robbed.” Because he wuz robbed, according to him.
He played hard. He tried to dislodge the ball, and he didn’t do it correctly.
Mind you, I’m not a Yankee fan. But the knee-jerk hatred of anti-rooters just pisses me off. Because if it was a member of your own favorite team (provided you have one, that is) did the same thing, the Pit thread would be about the umpires.
Jesus. He didn’t punch Arroyo in the face. He stretched the rules. It didn’t work. The Yankees lost. That’s baseball.
