VIDEO: A-Rod's Famous Glove Slap Against Red Sox Wasn't Even Really Cheating and Bill Simmons is Wrong

Oh, baby, do I LOVE getting cheating defined to me by a Boston sports fan. Can't think of anything more enjoyable. Just for reference's sake, this is the fan base that just fired a video replay technician as the fall guy to escape a cheating scandal that hung over their 2018 World Series win. A fan base that cheers on the Patriots, but not so loudly that their illegal cameras shake and they lose the practice footage. Without a shred of irony, Boston's own Bill Simmons flamed A-Rod as a cheater, replaying his 2004 ALCS Game 6 glove slap, a moment that was pathetic, sad, dinky, and endemic of a season falling apart, but...was it cheating? Really?

This was at the tail end of the Curt Schilling bloody sock game. Truly, it was the Yankees' last gasp. Down 4-2 in the eighth inning, A-Rod approached Bronson Arroyo on a slow roller and daintily smacked the pitcher's glove, dislodging the ball, and allowing Derek Jeter to score. Rodriguez's contact with the glove was ruled to be out of bounds, and the run didn't count. If the Yanks weren't already dead, they certainly had been killed as No. 13 retreated to the dugout.

But in 2004, it was perfectly in bounds to absolutely throttle an opposing catcher, steamrolling him so he'd drop a baseball and blow the tag. Why is this cheating? Why was this ever cheating? Because it was such an un-manly motion? Pathetic, sure. Cheating? Don't get it.

Plus there's, you know, the actual rules of the game of baseball to contend with here.

You won't hear anyone mention that!

The 2004 ALCS will never be the Yankees' proudest moment. But to act like Boston was the clean team here, 25 men of valor batting the forces of evil, is misguided. David Ortiz, popped for steroids on the same anonymous survey report that Alex Rodriguez first appeared on, knocked in 11 runs in the series. One man's vilified and one man's behavior is ignored, though. 'Nuff said.

Also, pretending that ketchup on a sock is blood feels like cheating, too, Mr. Schilling.