Friday, September 17, 2010
Telling everyone you’re faking it is not cool
Posted by Anna McDonaldRandom thoughts from the week in baseball:
On Wednesday night after the Yankees and Rays game a reporter (not wearing tight jeans) from the Yes Network did a fantastic job at getting Derek Jeter to admit the ball hit the bat instead of hitting him. While he didn't break any official "rules" and faking it is part of the game within the game, many people didn't like it. Faking it got him what he wanted (first base) and ballplayers do this sort of thing all the time—perhaps not with such Emmy award winning skills as Jeter, but they all act. Sometimes we have proof to back it up, sometimes we just wonder. The difference with Jeter is that he told everyone he faked it.
Hummpf. Do we really want someone to admit they're faking it? Probably not, if you're going to double over in pain in front of thousands of people for a bogus reason that was caught on tape, at least keep up the show and change your story to being a part of the new wave of appendicitis, or something. Guaranteed, Jeter embarrassing the umpire crew by acknowledging he faked it and then saying, "they told me to go to first base" might be the greatest motivator to date for MLB to begin thinking about more instant reply.
The Facebook philosophy is to, "help you connect and share with the people in your life." Only, most people use it to post really stupid stuff. There are a few people around baseball who I think would have more entertaining things to post than what their dog just threw up all over the floor. Here are a few:
Joey Votto I'm still trying to make a run for one of the most interesting sports performances of the year: not hitting an infield pop up all season. So far so good.
Joey is now friends with Albert Pujols and Carlos Gonzalez
Alex Rodriguez Hey all, please join the group, "Inez Sainz, you're welcome in any MLB locker room, wearing whatever you want."
David Wright and every single MLB player, coach and clubhouse guy like this
Rob Dibble I went shopping with my wife and her friends all day. We didn't stop talking the whole time, and the sales are great! I can't wait to meet the guys at the ballpark for ice cream and tell them about all the fall sales.
Albert Pujols This 2010 team has showed us a lot—we've figured out that losing games doesn't work.
The Pittsburgh Pirates like this.
Bronson Arroyo Shared a link on his wall
Many of you have asked about my leg kick. Here's the link: Yoga for flexibility
Random thoughts not so directly related to baseball:
The NCAA website posts the statement, “The overwhelming majority of student-athletes will never earn a dime as a professional athlete” The NCAA provides these staggering statistics. For men’s basketball, the percentage of high school students that continue on to the NCAA is 3.1 percent, from NCAA to the pros it’s 1.2 percent and breaking the number down even further the percentage of high school basketball players that go pro is 0.03 percent.
Baseball seems to be a better investment of time and energy, but the probability of competing beyond high school is still sobering. For baseball players, 6.3 percent advance from high school to the NCAA, from NCAA to the pros, 9.1 percent move forward. If you happen to be a parent cheering for one of the 473,184 high school baseball players, your son has a 0.44 percent chance of someday playing professional baseball. Better not buy that personalized MLB Jersey just yet.
For football players the percentage of high school players to the NCAA is 5.8 percent, from NCAA to pro the percentage is 1.7 percent, and starting with a total of 1,112,303 students playing football in high school, 0.08 percent actually make it to play professional football.
Reggie Bush has a trail of producers: high school and university coaches and agents to reach the end user, the NFL. Ultimately all of these parties are responsible for the life of a young man who has spent his entire life working for something which one of the producers admits he has little chance to succeed in. When Bush decided to forfeit the Heisman he became the first party to achieve the trust committee’s mission statement of fostering community responsibility.
The topic of player development, whether it be in regard to pitching and the injuries young pitchers face, or the responsibility of all parties (including the athlete) in developing a college athlete—baseball or otherwise—has only just begun.
Anna just opened a Twitter account. You can follow her @Anna__McDonald. She also writes for ESPN.com.
I think its great that Jeter is having such a bad year that he has to pretend to get hit to get on base at this point. And to think he is going to get a multi year 20 mil/yr contract . . . his numbers arent any better than Scutaro. Advertising dollars be damned. The Captain may not have violated any of baseball rules, but he diminished his reputation as a leader in my eyes. Ethics, anyone?