Though the New York Post’s Mike Puma sneers at Derek Jeter having “took a page from the Jose Reyes base-running manual” with yesterday’s attempted steal of 3rd with none out in the first inning of an eventual 7-6 loss to Toronto, much of last night’s coverage concerned umpire Marty Foster allegedly telling The Captain it wasn’t necessary for 3B Scott Rolen to apply a tag if the throw beat Jeter to the bag. Newsday’s Katie Strang recounts an unusual instance of an umpiring crew chief all but burying a colleague :
Because of Jeter’s reputation and characteristically stoic nature, Hirschbeck was surprised at his reaction.
“In my 27 years in the big leagues, [Jeter] might be the classiest person I’ve ever been around in uniform,” Hirschbeck said. “I do think, ‘Wow, that’s unusual’ and I did at the time.”
If Jeter’s assertions about his dialogue with Foster are true, Hirschbeck essentially sided with Jeter and said he understands his reaction. “Which would make his actions seem appropriate if that’s what he was told,” Hirschbeck said. “I would think that would aggravate him.”
In the wake this allegedly historic incident, Subway Squawkers’ Lisa Swan wonders, “where does this myth come from anyway?”
Virtually every story about yesterday’s game suggests that Jeter rarely argues calls. You could have fooled me. The next time he gets called out on strikes and doesn’t argue with the umpire will be the first time.
Granted, my guess is that Jeter doesn’t say any of the magic words that cause ejection. After all, he’s never been tossed from a game in his entire career. But to suggest that he rarely argues umpire calls is just laughable. And untrue. He may be polite about it, but he does openly disagree with umpires a lot.
But perception is reality. Much like how Milton Bradley, to name one example, will rarely be given the benefit of the doubt, even when he’s in the right, Jeter gets the rep of rarely arguing umpires’ calls, even though it is not the case.