that Yost, or his supporters of the decision to bunt Mon

Remember that time when Kevin Pietersen danced down the pitch to Shane Warne and was stumped, and the umpire asked Ricky Ponting to withdraw the appeal? Of course you dont, because it didnt happen, and the very idea of it happening is absurd. Why, then, do umpires continue to pressure fielding captains to reconsider appeals for the so-called Mankad dismissal, the act of a bowler running out a non-striker who is backing up?How are the situations any different, really? In both cases the batsman is attempting to gain advantage, in one by reaching the pitch of the ball and negating spin, in the other by reducing the distance he must cover to complete a run. A wicketkeeper who stumps a batsman is lauded for his sharp work, yet an eagle-eyed bowler who mankads is usually condemned as unsporting.In 2011, the ICC made it easier for bowlers to effect such a dismissal. Previously the bowler had to take the bails off before entering his delivery stride. This is still the case under the MCCs Laws of Cricket, but the ICC adapted its playing conditions to allow the act before releasing the ball and provided he has not completed his usual delivery swing. It was a clear and deliberate move to keep batsmen accountable.But umpires have undermined the regulation by victimising bowlers who are only trying to stop batsmen sneaking an advantage. Consider these two recent examples.Last February in an ODI at the SCG, Lahiru Thirimanne continually left his crease far too early. R Ashwin warned Thirimanne and when the batsman kept doing it, Ashwin ran him out. Instead of raising his finger, the umpire, Paul Reiffel, consulted his square-leg colleague and asked Indias captain, Virender Sehwag, if he wanted to go through with the appeal.In doing so, Reiffel implicitly suggested Ashwins act of removing the bail was underhanded. It told the crowd India were borderline cheats, made Thirimanne think his behaviour was okay, and placed undue pressure on Sehwag, who ended up withdrawing a legitimate appeal. Thirimanne batted on, continued to back up unfairly, scored 62 and set up a Sri Lankan victory.Later in 2012, Surreys Murali Kartik mankaded Somersets Alex Barrow during a County Championship match. Like Ashwin, Kartik had warned the batsman, though he wasnt compelled to do so. Still, the umpire, Peter Hartley, wasnt happy. He asked the fielding captain, Gareth Batty, three times if he would withdraw the appeal. Rightly, Batty refused, and later Surrey were booed off the field.Reiffel and Hartley should simply have raised a finger, as they would for any other run-out, but instead they added to the ill-feeling by suggesting the bowler was in the wrong. The ICCs playing condition 42.11 explicitly states that a mankad is fair. An additional clause should be added to state that an umpire must not consult the fielding captain before making his decision, unless the conversation is instigated by the captain.Certainly a mankad is no less fair than when a strikers straight drive rockets through the bowlers hands and hits the stumps with the non-striker out of his ground. Of course, umpires rightly treat that as they do a regulation run-out. Just as they should with the mankad. Mookie Wilson Jersey Large .C. -- Al Jefferson joked that he feels he can score from anywhere on the court. Cheap Custom Mets Jersey . -- Anaheim Ducks defenceman Luca Sbisa will be out at least six weeks with a torn tendon in his right hand. http://www.custommetsjersey.com/ . The Cleveland Indians, Tampa Bay Rays, and Texas Rangers all won on Sunday meaning the Rangers will host the Rays in a play-in game on Monday. Custom Mets T-shirts .Y. -- Knicks coach Mike Woodson said Wednesday that J. Authentic Custom Mets Jersey . The Vancouver coach and an announced sellout crowd of 18,910 watched in dismay as the Canucks lost 7-4 to the New York Islanders on Monday night by squandering a 3-0 lead in the third period. At Notre Dame Stadium, there is a narrow stairway that leads from the home teams locker room to the football field. As players come down the stairwell, each is reminded by a sign hanging overhead to Play Like A Champion Today. To reinforce the message, every Notre Dame player touches the sign.I suspect even the legions of fans who root, often intensely, against Notre Dame, would have to admit that the sign, a last reminder prior to competition, is one of the most iconic motivational symbols in sports.If I owned a Major League Baseball team or were appointed general manager of one, I too would hang a motivational sign. Each game, the manager would see it on the way to the dugout and be reminded of an overriding philosophy, to cast aside infrequently and only after great deliberation. It would read:DONT JUST DO SOMETHING -- STAND THERE!During MLBs Sunday Night Baseball showcase, Royals manager Ned Yost put his inability to simply sit still on full display, until finally his hands were tied.First, lets set the stage for Kansas City: Beat the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park, and the Royals are three games behind Baltimore for the second wild-card spot and just four games behind Boston for the first one. Lose, and not only do those numbers move to four games and six games, respectively, but the Royals fall behind three other teams in the wild-card race. A team in seventh place in the standings instead of tied for fourth, with 42 games left in the season, has entered the perilous its not the distance, its the traffic phase of chasing. Its clearly not a win-or-go-home situation, but its a very important game for the defending World Series champions. In such a situation, no chances to win the game should be squandered.In the top of the second inning of a scoreless game, Salvador Perez got the visitors on the scoreboard with a lead-off solo home run, followed by a single by Alex Gordon and a walk to Alcides Escobar. That brought Raul Mondesi to the plate, who perhaps is best known for making his major league debut during the 2015 World Series. Yost predictably ordered Mondesi to bunt, and he did, successfully advancing Gordon and Escobar.It was a terrible decision, even noting that Gordon subsequently scored from third when Paulo Orlando hit a sacrifice fly to center. A run expectancy chart and its derivative, a win expectancy chart, can display mathematically why it was the wrong decision, but relying on those cheat sheets, like a first-time blackjack player, vastly underestimates how poor the decision was. Expectancy charts are based on baseline, league-average situations, but this was not a baseline situation. The Royals were playing the highest-scoring team in the majors, in the American Leagues highest-scoring run environment over the last three seasons. You cannot construct a situation in the American League in which a single run has less marginal value for winning a game than what the Royals faced Sunday night.With 24 outs to go in the game, and two pitchers in the game with 2016 ERAs of 4.27 and 5.11 on the mound, bunting with a runner on first and second and nobody out is foolish.Yost couldnt contain himself, and clearly felt like he had to do something. Perhaps he thought Mondesi, as a rookie, couldnt handle the pressure of the situationn, or that with his blazing speed, he might beat out the sacrifice, or that as a struggling .dddddddddddd84 hitter entering the game, Mondesi had to be treated like a pitcher.Every one of those thoughts should have been suppressed, because they all lead to justifications for the wrong answer. Either Mondesi is a professional baseball player, or hes not. If his true talent level is that of a sub-Mendoza Line hitter, then the Royals are guilty of terrible lineup construction for a crucial game, and that falls on the manager as well (and perhaps the front office). Further, the primary reason its proper to sacrifice pitchers isnt because they have poor batting averages or because they strike out a lot, its because they are a huge threat to ground into a double play. Thats the downside of swinging away with runners on first and second and nobody out. Mondesi has blazing speed. In 101 career plate appearances, hes grounded into one double play. (A deep dive into the invaluable Baseball-Reference.com reveals that Mondesi has batted with a runner on first and fewer than two outs 22 times. His double play rate of 4.6 percent in that situation is way below the 2016 league average of 11.1 percent.)Yost treated Mondesi like a pitcher -- essentially yielding the DH advantage to the team with the best DH in baseball -- all due to his urge to do something, and theres nothing to indicate he wouldnt make the same sub-standard decision again -- unless, of course, his hands were tied. Four innings later, thats exactly what happened.With one out in the top of the sixth, and the Red Sox now leading 4-3 (remember the comment about the games run environment?), Mondesi came to the plate again in a high-leverage situation, only this time there was nothing Yost could do to take the bat out his young second basemans hands. The bases were loaded. Some crazy suicide squeeze thought may have crossed Yosts mind, but if so, it was thankfully subdued, because Mondesi swung away and promptly crushed a triple to the deepest part of the park.Any contrived narrative that Yost, or his supporters of the decision to bunt Mondesi in the second inning, relied on was disproven two Mondesi at-bats later. Based on the coverage of beat writers and reporters who are very well connected to the game, Yost gets high marks for his ability to lead a clubhouse and earn the respect of his players. That attribute should never be understated, as anyone, sabermetrically inclined or not, who has participated in the work force should acknowledge. Hes often referred to as a players manager.That may be the case, but once a game begins, a true players manager would be a manager who puts his players in the best position to succeed; as exemplified by his handling of Mondesi on Sunday night, Yost falls short of that standard. He may be the perfect man to lead his team into a game, but in lieu of installing the STAND THERE! sign in his office, once the game starts, the Royals would be best served to tie him to the bench and let the game play out. Kansas Citys eight-run sixth inning Sunday night served as a perfect example of whats possible when the skippers hands are tied. ' ' '