Wherefor art thou, sportsmanship?

From Monday, May 7, 2007 game Seattle against Yankees:

"We'll take it," Willie Bloomquist said. "It's just a good thing there's no instant replay in baseball."

Bloomquist was out by a foot in his attempt to steal second base, but was called safe. He later went on to score.

It's unclear from the article whether Bloomquist knew he was out at the time, but he probably did.

Of course, this is not an isolated incident. Umpires blow calls all the time and players say nothing (unless the call goes against them, of course.)

And of course it's been going on since baseball began. Over a hundred years ago.

I've seen it myself hundreds of times in the three decades I've been watching the game.

But it's still rather sad, that players remain on base even though they know they're out. Of course if Bloomquist had said, "Hey, ump, I was out by a mile," he would have been made the laughing stock of the team and the baseball world... and that also says a lot about our society.

(Though let me emphasise that in other countries where a soccer player who misses a goal is shot and killed by a fan, and soccer games need to be played in areas where there are no fans - says a lot about their society!)