Baseball does have a colorful history of cheating and gamesmanship, rooted in its blue collar early days when making the post-season meant not having to work so hard in the off-season. "Right and wrong is all the same when baby needs new shoes. It's not how you play the game, it's whether you win or lose." Still, I haven't seen Johnny Bench on TV defending Giambi, and he certainly cheated.
Such wickedness.......Imagine.....a player making an effort to distract an infielder from making a play.....horror of horrors! At this rate we'll be hiding the ball in our gloves while pretending to throw it back to the pitcher....or feigning an overthrow or imminent play at the bag......or heaven forbid - teaching our young children to distract the hitter or to swing at a bad pitch by such cruel chants as "hey Batta, batta" and SWING! You must be kidding me.....
Bench said that when he was a young player he was struck out on a pitch from Gaylord Perry that he claims dropped three feet through the strike zone and sprayed him with tobacco juice. He said he was so upset he yelled to Perry on the way back to the dugout that he "would never strike me out again" Perry responded "Why? Are you going to retire?"
In the interest of accuracy, none of the Yankee players or coaches were willing to defend A-Rod on this. I figure that's why they are in last place... they are bunch of wussies who won't pitch inside or force the issue on the field.
...of course Jiffy. What self-respecting big leaguer would ever stoop so low as to attempt to distract, deceive or disadvantage the opposition....either in the field, on the bases or at the plate. Whatever was he thinking?! For what its worth, I listened to Hall-of-Famer Bench scoff at the notion that what A-rod did was inappropriate or in any way worse than the gamesmanship that has gone on between the lines for a century....if you're telling me that that is the first time anybody ever pulled that trick, I've got a bridge to sell ya.....if it had been a BoSoxer, you'd have hailed him a clever gamer.
Baseball is built on a foundation of cheating and deception. From doctored baseballs to corked bats to watered down batters boxes to unmowed infield grass to sharpened spikes to pine tar to sign stealing from baserunners, scoreboard workers and using TVs to well, you get the idea. I don't know what his motivation was but I would like to think he was trying to win a game. Its the first sign of life we've seen from a Yankee in weeks.
If I'm a Blue Jays fan I'm upset at my team for even making public the possibility that they were duped by a move that originated in the stone age. That makes the Blue Jays players look really, really stupid. This is what you get when you pay boys with huge egos and little knowledge of fundamentals millions of dollars to play the game.
Sid, I'm ambivalent about the play itself. As far as the Jays stating that A-Rod vocally interfered, causing the ball to fall untouched - and there is no rule against him doing so - they really had little choice about that. If you watch the replay, and you can at mlb.com, immediately after the play both fielders and the manager had words with A-Rod, and an umpire had to step in. How else would you describe that to the press afterward? I don't really see this as being an issue over fundamentals. I see it more as an issue of sporstmanship, and that is indeed a very gray area.
The day-after comments by MLB people, players and coaches, seem to be split down the middle. Like you, Rick, I'm ambivalent about it. IMO, you can make a case either way. I read a related and funny commentary earlier this morning by Tommie LaSorda, but I can't remember where I saw it. He told a story about coaching in the minor leagues at the AAA level and calling "I got it! I got it!" on a pop foul, which caused the catcher to let the ball drop.