Remember yesterday’s uproar as a result of that ump telling Jeter he was out because the ball beat him to the bag? Well, that’s not what he said he said:
[Crew Chief John] Hirschbeck spoke to Foster on Tuesday and got a different version. Here’s what Hirschbeck said Foster told Jeter at the time: “The ball beat you, and I had him tagging you.”
“I don’t see a problem with that,” Hirschbeck said. “Sometimes when tempers flare, you don’t hear everything that’s said.”
Interesting. But not nearly as interesting as it will be if someone in the New York press gets Jeter on the record today about all of this. Because he pretty much has to say the ump was lying, right? And when you do that, you usually get fined or something, don’t you? More likely scenario: Jeter gets away with some non-committal quote and everyone drops it because he’s the Captain and no one ever seems to want the Captain to look bad.
Meanwhile, the mind reels at the notion of what all of this would look like if it had been Alex Rodriguez getting thrown out at third with nobody out in the first inning.