Ginobili, Varejao....Pierzynski? Flopping Enters Baseball

Sunday, August 24, is a day that could live in infamy. It is a day when flopping, the most heinous of sports-related crimes (yes, even worse than doping, dogfighting and gambling) made its way into the American pastime.

If you weren't tuned into TBS Sunday afternoon, you're probably asking yourself "How could anyone flop in baseball?"

Well, guess what? Someone did. So why don't you read on before asking stupid questions. Dammit, its naysayers like you who are ruining it for everybody!

Sorry, I got a little distracted.

Anyways, it is now the bottom of the tenth inning. The Tampa Bay Rays are visiting U.S. Cellular field in a game, that 12 months ago, if you said the White Sox and Rays would be playing a game in August with playoff implications, I would have shot you on sight.

The White Sox are in a battle for both the AL Central and the Wild Card, so they can ill afford to drop a game, much less be swept at home, which is what was on the verge of happening.

The Tampa Rays are riding an incredible streak of dumb luck, timely hitting and unbelievable karma into an ever-growing lead in the AL East. But with teams such as the Red Sox and Yankees, no lead is safe, especially not in August.

I set the scene so you can see how significant the flop is.

Bottom of the 10th. The White Sox have ridden a 3-2, 2 out single from pinch hitter Paul Konerko into a tie game in the ninth.

Catcher A.J. A Pierzynski leads off the inning with a single to center, and is advanced on a sacrifice fly to second.

Jermaine Dye grounds to the shortstop, and Pierzynski, not thinking, gets himself caught in a rundown.

Short of an error, how many times has a rundown actually worked for a runner? Almost never.

So Pierzynski is caught in the rundown, and as shortshop Willy Aybar passes by Pierzynski, Pierzynski stumbles backwards and falls to the ground, quickly tagged for the second out.

Or is he? The umpires call interference on Aybar, which not only takes away the out, but puts Pierzynski on third with one out.

Upon looking at the replay, a chilling picture emerges.

As Aybar passes Pierzynski, Pierzynski throws his arm out in a vain attempt to draw contact. When he doesn't get it, he acts like he was hit anyway, even though Aybar is now almost five feet away.

This heinous act ended up winning the game for the White Sox, and set a dangerous precedent in baseball.

With no replay (yet), the umpires have to make that call on one view. The thing about rundowns is, they are so fluid, it's impossible for a single field umpire to always have the optimal angle.

Therefore, the ump couldn't necessarily see the angle we TV viewers saw, we saw Pierzynski flop like a bass on a boat.

(By the way, the only way flopping would be acceptable would be if Brandon Bass of the Dallas Mavericks did it. The puns would write themselves.)

Anyways, thank you A.J. Pierzynski. Because of you, my girlfriend had to put a cold compress on her right eye for most of last night, and because of you she had to tell her co-workers she fell down the stairs.

Because of you, flopping has entered baseball. Like a horrible rash, flopping has spread from soccer to basketball to baseball. I hope you're proud of yourself.