You’re right that opportunities would be rare. There’s not much incentive to fake being hurt because baseball doesn’t have fouls the way soccer, basketball, and football do.
There’s no rule against faking getting hit by a pitch. It’s a a part of all sports to use acting to try to draw fouls. How many basketball players go flying across the court like ragdolls trying to make it look like they’re taking a charge?
If Kobe Bryant goes to the hole and gets a call, should he tell the ref, “no, he didn’t really get me, that was all ball?”
Should wide receivers in football decline pass interference calls if they think the safety didn’t really touch them?
There is all kinds of accepted fakery that goes on in sports. How about when the catcher tries to frame the catch to make it look like the ball was over the plate when it wasn’t? Is that cheating? Bad sportsmanship? Bad role modeling?
I don’t see Jeter’s gambit as any big deal. I certainly don’t believe he’s the first player to ever bluff getting hit by a pitch. It’s probably happened countless times in much more ordinary, un-dramatic fashion which just didn’t draw any notice.
Beside, if you’re not cheating you’re not trying.
It was weak and lame like soccer diving, but being an isolated incident it isn’t as bad as the ubiquitous wussiness in soccer diving and basketball flopping.
No, they don’t. Team sport athletes most certainly do NOT have a responsibility to integrity. The only responsibility a team sport athlete has is to his teammates, period. Integrity is for the individual sport nerds like golfers.