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Roger Mooney

Roger Mooney covers the Tampa Bay Rays for The Tampa Tribune, TBO.com and News Channel 8. He has covered the Rays since their first season in 1998, including 11 years for the Bradenton Herald. Roger has also covered Florida, South Florida and Florida State football, the Bucs and the Lightning.

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Jeter was Oscar-worthy but only in a supporting role

Posted Sep 16, 2010 by Roger Mooney

Updated Sep 16, 2010 at 04:31 PM

And the Oscar for best supporting actor goes to ...

ROGER MOONEY
ST. PETERSBURG—What Derek Jeter did Wednesday night was no different than a basketball player trying draw a charging call or a wide receiver trying to draw a pass interference penalty or an outfielder holding his glove up to the umpire to signify he made a shoestring catch when he knows darn well the ball bounced.

Even Joe Maddon said he applauded Jeter’s role in acting as if he were struck on the wrist by a pitch from Chad Qualls when replays showed the ball hit the knob of his bat then struck Jeter’s jersey, which made it a foul ball. Had the umpires been able to view the replay, they would have known this.

Jeter is a cheater only in the sense that he was trying to gain an edge, a ploy that has been part of the game from the moment they drew up the rules.

Heck, runners to used to take a shortcut from second base to home by completely missing third base. That was solved by adding more umpires.

It’s easy to blame the umps in Wednesday’s game, but it’s tough to fault the fellas on the bases, because there is no way they could have seen the ball hit the knob of Jeter’s bat.

Heard it, yes.

The “pop” was so loud it could have been heard from one end of Jeter’s Tampa house to the other.

Now, home plate umpire Lance Barksdale had to have heard the same thing John Jaso heard, and the Rays catcher said he heard the ball strike something that “wasn’t flesh.”

And Jeter? He was just trying to get on base in a game the Yankees trailed 2-1.

Maybe MLB should take a long look at this incident as well as a few other blown calls this season and rethink the instant replay policy.

It hasn’t exactly killed the NFL. Even tennis will take a few seconds to see if a ball is in or out.

While Jeter was clinching his Oscar nomination, Carlos Pena picked up the ball and tossed it to Sean Rodriguez, who stepped on first. Maddon argued that Jeter should be out.

Actually, a replay would have shown the ball was foul, so Jeter would have continued his at-bat.

We’ll never know what would have happened had the umpires made the correct call.

What did happen was this: Curtis Granderson followed with a home run to put the Yankees ahead 3-2 and double—triple?—the frustration felt by Rays fans.

And Dan Johnson answered with a two-run homer in the bottom of the inning for the final runs in the Rays 4-3 win, which capped a spectacular three-game series that saw the AL East lead change hands three times after three one-run games.

Don Zimmer told James Shields after Wednesday’s win that it was the best series he had ever witness, and I certainly agree, though Zim’s seen more baseball than I. But, still ... WOW.

Anyway, back to my point:

Yes, the umpires should have gotten the play right from the start.

Yes, they should have been allowed the use of instant replay to get the call right.

But I’ll take what happened, because it made for another Dan Johnson moment, and I can’t get enough of those.

He’s Danny “Bleeping” Johnson in Boston and now Danny “Freaking” Johnson in New York.

Pennant races and playoff chases are made for moments such as Johnson’s, where a designated hitter who signed with the Rays in the offseason because he wanted to be a part of something special and does crossword puzzles in the clubhouse between at-bats, steps into the spotlight and takes a chunk out of the defending World Series champions, whether it’s the Red Sox in 2008 or the Yankees in 2010.

Yes, we’ll long remember what Jeter did. And for just as long, we’ll remember what Johnson did. Maybe longer.

Turns out, Jeter wasn’t the best performance Wednesday night.