Arod and The Captain - Hypocrisy At it's Finest

Tonight ESPN aired 30 for 30 "Four nights in October" and it is a pretty good documentary, nothing special but interesting enough. The documentary just showed Game 6 and the Arod play where he swatted the ball out of Bronson Arroyo's glove. Arod knew he was going to be out so he tried to swat the ball out of Arroyo's glove because he knew that there was no other way he could reach first base. All he was doing was trying to help his team win and he was doing anything he could to make it happen. Was it cheating? Probably, but it's the umpires job to make that call.

I would compare this type of baseball activity to the other types of baseball activities that could be considered cheating that could also be considered cheating in baseball. A catcher framing a pitch when he knows its a ball, a second, third baseman or shortstop pretending to have made a tag in time, an outfielder acting like he made a diving catch when in fact he had trapped it, and the last example is a batter pretending like a ball hit them when they knew that it hit the bat.

O yea, by the way, the last example of cheating happened this year by none other than The Captain Derek Jeter. Derek Jeter pretended that the ball had hit his hand and not his bat. After doing this Jeter's was interviewed and said that he knew he had not been hit by the ball but he figured he could get to first base if he pretended it him. After this everyone applauded Jeter for his acting and effort.

I'm not saying that there is anything wrong with what Jeter did, "if you aint cheating you aint trying" but I don't see the big difference between what Alex Rodriguez did and what Derek Jeter did. They both were doing everything they could to get on first base and help their team win.