In response to Ray Parker's letter citing Derek Jeter's lack of ethics ("Jeter is Hardly a Role Model for Truth," Dec. 6), I believe he misses a key element of baseball. A ball is not a ball, nor a strike a strike, unless and until the umpire declares it so. The same is true of hit-by-pitch calls. It is not Mr. Jeter's nor any player's role to argue with the umpire, and in fact doing so can lead to a snappy ejection. Umpires are human and humans are not perfect. But Mr. Jeter played the game exactly as it is supposed to be played. The umpire gave him first base, and he took it.
Clinton Bybee
Austin, Texas
Note from KBJ: The letter writer failed to notice that Jeter pretended to have been hit. Had he merely done what he could to avoid the pitch and then been told by the umpire to take first, it would have been acceptable, and no stain on his character, to take first. By the way, if a ball is not a ball, or a strike a strike, until the umpire declares it so, then why does it make perfectly good sense to say, "You called that a ball, but it was a strike" (or conversely)? A strike is a pitch that goes through the strike zone, which is objectively defined. (See here, page 30.) It is not (as the letter writer says) a pitch that is declared to be so by the umpire.
Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D. 