[antceecee]

I agree with you. AJ's behaviour in my eyes was cheating. He faked out the catcher and he faked out the ump. The ump called him safe because he was not sure if his out call had been correct. Since the Angels had taken his out call seriously and started leaving the field, the honest thing to do would have been to call him out end the inning and let them go on to the next inning. What were the Sox afraid of? Everything was tied up. They just showed kids around the country it's okay to cheat if you can get away with it.

[darbymcgill]

AJ's behaviour in my eyes was cheating

Cheating is intentionally breaking the rules or the intent of the rules. What rule did AJ break.

The umpire erred in that he made a call he couldn't have possibly seen. He assumed the ball hit the ground.

Players fake out other players all the time. The infielders pretend to catch a ground ball or a relay to trick the runners into slowing down. The pitchers act like they are throwing a fast ball when they throw a change up to fake out the batter. Players and coaches steal signs and motives from opponents all the time. Batters even run to first when the ball comes close to hitting them when it didn't.

Deception and trickery are part of the game. The umpires should not be deceived by these scams and should only make the call that they definitely see. Because well all know what happens when we ass_u_me....

[Al Simmons]

I think you confused me with someone else.

AJ's action was a CLASSIC example of a "mind control" player who is aware of everything going on and scraps his team to a win. Cheating? BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

Its called a "heads-up" play. Any manager would KILL to have 24 players who are that "in it" mentally.

The Angels' catcher, OTOH, was shown to be the greenhorn bushleaguer that he is. If you've ever seen the great catchers play (my favorite one was Thurman Munson), you would have seen that they ALWAYS tag the batter whenever the play (third strike) is close.

The Angels' catcher pulled a MAJOR LEAGUE BONER.

The umpire made the right call, the Angels got faked out by THEIR OWN CATCHER (who wasn't paying attention), and the White Sox exploited the break to win.

Ain't baseball grand??