Alex Rodriguez's bush league play

You can now add the Toronto Blue Jays as teams who don't like Alex Rodriguez as last night he distracted Blue Jays third baseman Howie Clark by supposedly shouting at him when there was a popup in the area between third base and shortstop. So Clark thought that John McDonald would make the catch but the ball fell. Soon after that McDonald had some words for A-Rod and quickly the third base umpire stepped between them. According to A-Rod he only said "Hah!" at the time of the play. View a video clip of this down below in this post. Of the incident, Rodriguez said:

"In a situation like that, that play happens to me three or four times a week, except it's not at third base -- [it's] over by the dugout, foul territory," Rodriguez said. "Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. ... I get screamed at all the time on the field. I didn't say, 'I got it' or anything like that."

Blue Jays' third baseman Howie Clark said about the play:

"I heard a 'Mine' call and so I let it go," Clark said. "It wasn't Johnny Mac. What do you do? It makes you mad."

Blue Jays' manager John Gibbons had this to say about the incident:

"I haven't been around that long -- maybe I'm naïve," Blue Jays manager John Gibbons said. "But it's bush league. Everybody in this business, they all look at the Yankees -- they do things right. They play hard. Class operation. That's what the Yanks are known for. That's not Yankee baseball."

A few more quotes from others about the incident:

"I wasn't sure that was allowed," outfielder Johnny Damon said. "If it is, maybe we'll keep on doing it."

Said manager Joe Torre: "I don't know what to feel for it. It's not like he said, 'I got it.'"

If you haven't seen the play, you can view it on Yankees.com, on the right side of the page, click the "Strange play in ninth" link. Or you can watch the play with the video clip down below in this post. Even Derek Jeter may have thought that the incident broke an unwritten rule, from Yankees.com:

"Yankees captain Derek Jeter declined to comment on the play, instructing reporters to ask Rodriguez's opinion instead. A few lockers away, Yankees center fielder Johnny Damon smirked, trying unsuccessfully to hide the same type of devious smile Rodriguez had in the ninth inning."

None of the Yankees stood up for Alex Rodriguez after the game as the only things I heard were the two quotes above from Johnny Damon and Joe Torre. Doesn't that tell a lot? It tells me that they know what A-Rod did was wrong and is not something that is allowed in baseball. So did Alex Rodriguez break an unwritten baseball rule? Watching the play and if A-Rod really did yell "I got it" or "mine" then I think that was cheap and bush league and he shouldn't have done it. Breaking unwritten rules isn't something new for A-Rod. Recently "Rodriguez was also questioned by Boston infielder Dustin Pedroia after a May 22 game, claiming that a play in which Rodriguez threw an elbow to break up a double play was 'cheap.'" [link]

We all remember the slap on Bronson Arroyo's glove in the 2004 ALCS to knock the ball out of Arroyo's glove. Soon after that, pictures of A-Rod carrying a purse knocking the ball out of Arroyo's glove were online. A-Rod and his lip gloss and his reputation have been going down ever since the brawl with Jason Varitek. A-Rod kept throwing f-bomb after f-bomb at Varitek until Varitek had enough and roughed up A-Rod. And now this incident will just make A-Rod's rep go even lower now.

Video of Alex Rodriguez yelling "mine"

(Image at top of post is courtesy of AP PHOTO/CP, Adrian Wyld, CANADA)