After the game, Jeter admitted that he faked the whole thing, and said he went so far as to bring in accomplices to carry out the ruse when the Yankees trainer came out to look him over, saying he told the trainer as well as his manager, Joe Girardi, that he hadn’t been hit.  They fell right into the improv act while Rays manager Joe Maddon worked over the umpires to the point of getting tossed from the game.

So now, morning drive sports radio has plenty to discuss and argue since the incident relates to two of the more discussed and argued issues in MLB- instant replay and cheating.

Those in favor of instant replay point out that Jeter’s trickery would have been discovered and justice served had rules been in place for Maddon to appeal the call through electronic means. 

Some of those in favor of arguing over cheating in baseball seem to think that while Jeter has never tested positive for PEDs that could help him reach base, he did test positive last night for faking a HBP to reach base. 

Now, you just about have to be the pickiest of nit-pickers to get all over Jeter for cheating in this instance.  What Jeter did was no different than an outfielder holding the ball up as if they caught it in the air after knowingly trapping a liner.  It’s also not much different than a handsome young man I know raising his hand to the scorer’s table immediately after his more valuable teammate close by actually committed what would have been a third personal foul of the first half of a basketball game played many years ago. 

That ruse worked, by the way, and that handsome young man has grown into a stunningly attractive middle aged blogger that is still proud of his quick-thinking deception in that instance.

So, while Derek Jeter duped the umpire, it’s really the type of stuff we see all the time in sports, just with a little extra acting.  It may have ruffled some feathers, if not crossed a line of baseball etiquette.  But, so did Jeter’s co-infielder Alex Rodriguez, when he yelled “HA” at a Toronto Blue Jay opponent who was trying to catch a pop up back in 2007.  Of course, A-Rod got criticized quite a bit for that incident, but he’s A-Rod and not Captain Clutch.  That’s just the way that works.  While several claimed it was a ‘bush move’, not many seemed to claim A-Rod was cheating.

As far as instant replay goes, I really don’t know what to think.  Yes, there are plays that replay would overturn, ranging from Armando Gallarga’s perfecto lost in early June to Jeter’s innocence lost in mid-September.  But, as Joe Posnanski has noted before, the N.F.L. has a successful replay system that makes too many touchdowns turn into C.S.I. type investigations and threatens to sap the spontaneity from the sport.   

No matter which way, or how much you are or are not worked up about this, Derek Jeter was trying to get on base any way he could in a close game.  If Tampa didn’t like it, then perhaps he really will get hit by a pitch next week when they meet again in New York.

Rodriguez’s home run ratio for 2010 is down, as he’s turning only 3.7% of his plate appearances into round-trippers, compared to the 6% he’s averaged over his career.  It’s becoming painfully obvious that this current stretch of big-fly futility since  # 599 can only mean that Rodriguez knows what’s at stake, and likely has been dwelling on it since Spring Training.  And everyone knows that when A-Rod knows what’s at stake he tightens up.  Everyone also knows that if this were Yankee captain Derek Jeter, he would have hit his 600th home run in the next at-bat after his 599th.

As evidence of Jeter’s clutch abilities, my projections show that ”the Captain” is on pace to hit his 600th on May 17, 2083 – which of course, is one day after his current pace puts has him hitting his 599th.  But, that’s really not a fair comparison because Jeter is clutch and A-Rod is not.

Rodriguez will apparently play out the rest of his career as a Luis Castillo clone, plodding along with a .385 slugging percentage while using his still solid plate discipline to get on base enough to hold a job in the infield.  The Yankees probably hold hope that Rodriguez can finish his contract as a DH, perhaps pursuing 7oo or even 800 home runs in his career, but alas, the pressure of joining an elite group at 600 makes that lofty goal all but impossible, unless of course he can leg out an inside-the-parker and put himself in less stressful situations for a couple more seasons.

While fans watch Rodriguez crumble under the pressureevery night on ESPN, with constant reminders of what’s at stake, live in-game updates during at-bats, recaps of the mounting number of plate appearances since his last dinger, the message has been hammered home that he will never hit another home run as long as he lives.

We must realize that 599 home runs was a hell of a run.  He does, after all, hold a total that’s better than all but six other players.

In the post-PED world we live in, where testing and penalties have at least kept steroid use at a somewhat manageable (I.E., not rampant) level, it’s possible that we’ll never see another player hit 599 home runs in their career.

It’s also possible that we’ll never see another player hit 600, even though A-Rod is just one away.

The Jewish historian made his comments in regard to the newly built Colosseum in Rome, a historic stadium that rivals the “House that Ruth Built” in modern day New York City.  Josephus simply used the analogy to compare Rome’s societal excesses to those reportedly known about the biblical twin cities of Abraham’s era.  Unfortunately, his historic reference drew the ire of his contemporaries.  Detractors pointed out that the controversial events, deemed immoral by many, that led to Sodom and Gomorrah’s obliteration from the earth were not something to analogize so flippantly.    

McCarver’s recent comments have garnered similar derision and stoked the flames of passionate Yankee fans.  Those flames are burning as hot as the fire and brimstone that destroyed the two ancient cities.

The criticism started shortly after the FOX telecast of a Yankees game on Saturday.  That’s when McCarver and booth partner Joe Buck discussed New Yankee Stadium.  The two announcers felt images of former Yankee manager Joe Torre were, in their minds, conspicuously absent from the stadium decor.  McCarver compared the alleged omission of the former Yankee field general to World War II era revisionist history put forth as propoganda by Axis powers to disavow some of their former generals.  Just as Dennis Miller might have done, given the same opportunity, McCarver said-

“You remember some of those despotic leaders in World War II, primarily in Russia and Germany, where they used to take those pictures that they had … taken of former generals who were no longer alive, they had shot ‘em,” McCarver continued. “They would airbrush the pictures, and airbrushed the generals out of the pictures. In a sense, that’s what the Yankees have done with Joe Torre. They have airbrushed his legacy. I mean, there’s no sign of Joe Torre at the Stadium. And, that’s ridiculous. I don’t understand it.”

With such insensitive and obviously purposeful remarks made toward an organization that has done nothing in its storied history but serve as a beacon of this country’s democratic ideals, McCarver got what he rightfully deserved on Monday, as the Anti-Defamation League criticized his callous remarks. 

Perhaps the only fitting retribution for McCarver would be for a reformation of an agency like the GULAG, which has shown the ability to truly handle people like him that speak out against the Yankees.  In a just world, McCarver would finish his career toiling in obscurity while covering the Alburquerque Isotopes.  But, like Josephus before him, McCarver will likely just benefit from the criticism he’s currently facing. 

Josephus not only got past his own controversial comments in 90 A.D., they played a large part in deflecting far more serious questions about his past.   For instance, it was only after his death that historians started to doubt his account of  the Siege of Yodfat, where Josephus essentially rigged a game of ‘eenie, meenie, minnie, mo’ to save himself while those around him died.

Perhaps McCarver will benefit as well, since criticism from this past weekend seems to be overshadowing years of other gaffs and on air bloopers.