Deceiving the umpire

If baseball wants to provide positive role models for the nation's youth, it should probably be worried about performance-enhancing drugs. But it should also be concerned about basic sportsmanship. After all, steroids are just one among many ways of cheating.

In the season opener between the Mets and the Nationals, Alfonso Soriano should have scored to tie the game at 3. Instead he was called out at the plate. Watching the replay, I was left wondering two things:

• Why was the bat lying in the base path? I can understand the catcher not removing it, though in the interest of the sport as a whole he should have, but at least the umpire could have kicked it aside.
  
• Why did Paul Lo Duca present the ball to the umpire as though he had held onto it through the play when he knew he hadn't?

It is this second question that really gets at the issue of sportmanship. Major League Baseball should officially frown upon that kind of manipulation. In my opinion, deceiving the umpire is far more unsportsmanlike than, say, a jubilant end-zone celebration.

It's only from an idealistic standpoint that I blame Lo Duca for the outcome of this play. The true culprits are the umpire and the league. Plays at the plate are relatively rare, and are of tremendous significance because of the difference between a run and an out. It is therefore of the utmost importance that the umpires get these calls right. And yet, this seems to be among the most difficult calls in baseball to make. When it's a bang-bang play, it's not much better than a toss-up. Why do we put up with this?