Cedeno: "must be new rules"

Somewhere Johnny Evers smiled. Not because of the result of this friday afternoon ballgame, but because a modern day ballplayer actually knows the rule book. The unfortunate part is that ballplayer was Cardinal shortstop David Eckstein. Meanwhile the Cub shortstop who was guilty of the blunder gives us this quote to ponder:

"Next time, I'll look to home plate," Cedeno said. "I've got to run. I was asking the first-base umpire [Angel Hernandez] because he speaks Spanish, and I said, 'What did I do?' He said, 'You passed the base.' I said, 'So what? It's ball four.' I never had that happen before -- must be new rules."

"must be new rules." WTF? You have got to be kidding me. This from a middle infielder after he has had time to think about what he did.

I think Uncle Lou described what happened best:

"You can't overslide the bag," Piniella said. "What else can I tell you?"

One can see why the Cardinals make the playoffs every season with ballplayers like Eckstein. And the Cubs, well they're the Cubs.