Much as I despise the Yanks, I think the ump made a big mistake here...
http://www.nj.com/yankees/inde...ek_jeter_he_did.html
NEW YORK -- When Derek Jeter was called out attempting to steal third base with no one out, he asked third base umpire Marty Foster for a reason.
Jeter thought he was safe. The ball had beaten him there, but he moved his left hand around Scott Rolen's glove and replays showed he touched the bag before Rolen's tag.
"He didn't tag me," Jeter told Foster.
"He didn't have to," Foster said, according to Jeter. "The ball beat you."
Jeter was incensed. He followed Foster as he walked away to argue. Third base coach Rob Thomson restrained Jeter as Yankees manager Joe Girardi ran toward third looking for an explanation. ("Jete's not going to argue unless he's safe," Girardi said. "That's the type of player that Derek Jeter is.")
So less than a minute later, when Girardi received the same reasoning Jeter did, the manager was ejected.
"I didn't care for the explanation," Girardi said. "Just leave it at that. There has to be more to it."
Jeter, who rarely argues any call, couldn't believe what he was told.
"I was baffled by the explanation," Jeter said. "I was told I was out because the ball beat me and he didn't have to tag me. I was unaware of that change in the rules."
Foster was not made available to reporters after the game. Crew chief John Hirschbeck said Jeter may have been in the right, but couldn't say for sure. He had not spoken to Foster about his exchange with Jeter.
"It would make (Jeter's) actions seem appropriate if that's what he was told," Hirschbeck told reporters. "It used to be if the ball beat you, you were out, but it isn't that way anymore. It's not a reason to call someone out. You have to make a good tag."
Girardi said Jeter's decision to try and steal third with none out in the first inning is the right move -- only if he makes it safely to third.
"The idea to be aggressive, I don't have a problem with," Girardi said. "But you have to make sure that you're right. And he got called out."
It's the old baseball adage: When the throw beats the runner, the call is already made. Jeter said it only bothers him when he is the victim of such a play. Plenty of times before, he said, that call has benefitted him.
But he had never heard an umpire say that he didn't have to be tagged out.
"That's why I turned around," Jeter said.
Jeter, who said he has never been tossed from any game he's played on any level, said he wasn't close to being ejected. That's because he said he couldn't argue with Foster's bizarre reasoning.
Even Hirschbeck was surprised at Jeter's reaction.
"In my 27 years in the big leagues, he is probably the classiest person I've been around," Hirschbeck said.
Girardi took care of the arguing.
"An out is an out. And safe is safe," Girardi said. "I'm not a big believer in perception is reality. You're either out or you're safe."
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