The Black Sox of 2005...

In game 2 of this year's World Series, an umpire made a call that a batter was hit by a pitch. As a result, the next batter hit a Grand Slam, and potentially changed the course of the entire Series.

In the instant replay, it was fairly clear that the batter had NOT been hit and thus should not have been awarded first base.

The playoffs thus far have had a few controversial calls, but this one is different. It's one thing where it's not clear what happened and neither of the actors involved (the players that is) really knows and the ump is forced to make a judgment call. Sometimes he will make a mistake. Whether that is an argument for instant replay is a legitimate question, but this scenario is different.

Here, the batter must have KNOWN that he wasn't hit. Wouldn't the honorable thing have been to say "Hey, I wasn't hit" instead of basically allowing the lie to continue?

Maybe the ump thought the batter was hit, that's fine. It did look that way, but the batter definitely knew that he wasn't.

I wonder if he's going to be comfortable knowing that the victory in Game 2 (possibly) and the series (possibly) could all come about as a result of his unwillingness to just admit that it was a wrong call instead of benefitting from it.

This is like when you go to the store and the cashier makes a mistake in your favor. I was always taught that you tell the cashier that you got too much back instead of just looking the other way.

Guess when the stakes are high enough, the lesson that our sports teams/players may be teaching our kids is that it is ok to look the other way.

Up until now, I was rooting for the Sox, but now I'm not so sure.