MINNEAPOLIS -- The 2014 All-Star Game was one big love poem to Derek Jeter, and National League starting pitcher Adam Wainwright did more than any other player on the premises to advance the feel-good storyline. 
 
 As Jeter strolled toward home plate in the bottom of the first inning, Wainwright laid his glove on the mound, took a walk toward second base and joined in the wall-to-wall applause at Target Field. When Jeter finally dug his left toe in the box and got down to business, the pitcher-batter staredown turned into a test of wills. 
 
 "He told me, 'Let's go,' and I told him no," Wainwright said later. "It's the only time I'll ever tell Derek Jeter no." 
 
 So it was almost impossible to comprehend how Wainwright's show of respect would quickly be forgotten, a celebration would elicit controversy, and the pitcher's well-intentioned mix of candor and good humor would somehow brand him as the villain of the evening. In this age of instant information dissemination and rapid reactions, Wainwright learned the hard way that too much honesty can turn a stand-up guy into a Twitter piñata. 
 
 Before throwing a pitch, Adam Wainwright put his glove on the rubber and stepped back to let Derek Jeter have a moment. Rob Carr/Getty Images 
 
 Shortly after giving up an opposite-field double to Jeter, a triple to Mike Trout and a home run to Miguel Cabrera that helped propel the American League to a 5-3 victory over the National League, Wainwright inadvertently stepped in it big-time. While reflecting on Jeter's at-bat, he provided one detail too many. 
 
 "I was going to give him a couple of pipe shots," Wainwright said. "He deserved it. I didn't know he was going to hit a double or I would have changed my mind. I thought he was going to hit something hard to the right side for a single or an out. I probably should have pitched him a little bit better." 
 
 Chances are the negative fallout from the event will blow over relatively quickly. But this much is certain: Wainwright's biggest claim to fame in New York will no longer be freezing Mets outfielder Carlos Beltran with a curveball in the ninth inning of Game 7 in the 2006 National League Championship Series. 
 
 Wainwright will undoubtedly be subjected to his share of criticism over the coming days. He will be accused of raining on Jeter's parade, of cheapening the Captain's moment and of undermining the integrity of the All-Star Game. He understands that better than anyone, which is why he spent the better part of 10 minutes after the game flogging himself for his bad judgment. 
 
 He referred to himself as a "knucklehead" and an "idiot" while simultaneously expressing regret that his choice of words might have taken away from Jeter's big moment. 
 
 "If I'm going to get taken to the slaughterhouse for saying a stupid phrase, then I deserve it," Wainwright said. "If you can't laugh at yourself when you mess up, then you're going to continue to mess up. And you know what? I messed up. But I didn't try to let him get a hit. I messed up by speaking afterward." 
 
 For all the mixed messages and confusion that Wainwright elicited Tuesday, he probably did Major League Baseball a favor by exposing the massive problems inherent with what the All-Star Game has become in recent years. If there were any doubt, commissioner Bud Selig's "This One Counts" initiative has outlived its usefulness and needs to be put to rest before the 2015 All-Star Game in Cincinnati. 
 
 It has been 11 years since MLB began awarding home-field advantage in the World Series to the AL or NL team based on the outcome of the All-Star Game, and Selig maintains that the system has achieved its purpose by elevating a quaint midsummer exhibition into must-see summer viewing. If raising the stakes can increase the suspense and prompt more viewers to tune in to the game, that's obviously a good thing. And as Selig is fond of saying, the old system of alternating home-field advantage between leagues from one year to the next wasn't exactly "Einstein's theory of relativity." 
 
 After putting Derek Jeter on base, it wasn't long before Adam Wainwright had reason to regret it. Scott Rovak/USA TODAY Sports 
 
 But as the Wainwright-Jeter flap shows, the system has way too many pitfalls and minefields to be viable anymore. 
 
 MLB can't attach paramount importance to the All-Star Game when fans elect the starters, players have a say in the process, managers round out the rosters, and fans have yet another say in the Internet Final Vote. There are just too many constituencies to satisfy, and the voting becomes one big hash. 
 
 If home-field advantage in the World Series is at stake, every team should not have a representative, as is the custom, and the best players need to stick around for the long haul rather than make cameos. A prime example is Trout, who would have played all nine innings Tuesday instead of exiting in the sixth inning with a double, a triple and two RBIs in three at-bats. 
 
 And while this might seem sacrilegious, you can debate whether Jeter should have even been playing in the All-Star Game this year if it were strictly about winning. Of the 12 American League shortstops who qualify for the batting title, Jeter ranks 11th with a .647 OPS -- ahead of only Seattle's Brad Miller. Jeter deserved to be in Minneapolis for his class, fan appeal and overall body of work, and it would have been a crime for fans to miss a chance to say goodbye to him. But even a die-hard Yankees rooter might have trouble justifying Jeter batting leadoff for the AL squad if this were strictly about "This One Counts." 
 
 Some Yankees fans will claim that Wainwright's "pipe shot" phrase was disrespectful to Jeter because it implied that The Captain couldn't have gotten a hit without a helping hand. If so, they're a lot more sensitive than Jeter, who was content to let things slide when informed of Wainwright's comments after the game. 
 
 "If he grooved it, thank you," Jeter said. "You still have to hit it." 
 
 That's the perspective and self-assurance of a man who has 3,408 hits and five World Series rings on his résumé and knows that he will be going to the Hall of Fame on the first ballot. 
 
 The flap over Wainwright's grooved pitch reflects the changing mindset that linking World Series home-field advantage has wrought. When Chan Ho Park allegedly grooved a pitch to Cal Ripken Jr. in the Iron Man's final All-Star appearance in 2001, it was perceived as more a sign of generosity than a major breach of etiquette. But then, if Park did feed Ripken a "pipe shot," he at least had the good sense to keep quiet about it. 
 
 Sometimes the line between showmanship and winning tends to blur at the All-Star Game. Two years ago, Justin Verlander gave up five runs in the first inning of the AL's 8-0 loss in Kansas City and admitted that he wanted to light up the radar gun. 
 
 "I know this game means something," Verlander said at the time, "but we're here for the fans, and I know the fans don't want to see me throw 90 [mph] and hit the corners. Just let it eat and have fun." 
 
 Wainwright's biggest sin, in contrast, was trying to balance competition, respect for a distinguished elder and his natural inclination to avoid conducting media interviews like a garden-variety baseball robot. In exchange for spreading himself too thin, he almost blew up Twitter. 
 
 "People in New York already don't like me, so anything else I say will just fuel the fire there," Wainwright said before leaving Target Field. "I should probably hush up." 
 
 It's a little late for that. But if Wainwright's experience at the 2014 All-Star Game can prompt MLB to take a hard look at the event and what it should be, maybe his long, emotional night in Minnesota will have been worth it. ||||| Jeter a cheater? Act strikes a nerve 
 
 Derek Jeter … cheater? 
 
 Well, there's a new one. 
 
 Jeter, the New York Yankees' Hall of Fame-bound shortstop, was honored last year as Sports Illustrated's Sportsman of the Year. When the World Series champion Yankees visited the White House in April, President Barack Obama singled out Jeter and lauded him for — you guessed it — a career of superior sportsmanship. 
 
 Now this. 
 
 Wednesday night at Tropicana Field, Jeter was awarded first base with his Oscar-worthy performance on a phantom hit-by-pitch sequence. He feigned injury, flinging the bat away, doubling over and grimacing as trainer Gene Monaghan rushed to home plate. TV replays indicated the inside pitch by Tampa Bay's Chad Qualls actually struck the knob of Jeter's bat, not his arm, making a clearly audible whack. Umpires bought Jeter's act. 
 
 It immediately set up a two-run homer by Curtis Granderson, temporarily giving New York a one-run lead. But the Rays rallied to win 4-3 and reclaim first place in the American League East, diffusing much of the play's impact. 
 
 Still, the controversy won't die. 
 
 Clearwater's Robert Reader, a retired insurance man, felt his anger growing while watching Jeter fake the injury. Then he thought of something else. 
 
 "My 12-year-old grandson might be seeing this," Reader said Thursday. "Is this really the proper behavior for a guy who is a role model for millions of kids?" 
 
 "I'm just kind of sad," said Tampa's Mary Ann Newsome. "My son plays ball. He looks up to a guy like Derek Jeter, who, I always thought, was the best one out there. I really don't want kids to think it's OK to do this." 
 
 Public debate met uncomfortably at the confluence of mainstream ethics and baseball tradition, where practices such as stealing signs and doctoring balls are not only accepted, they are often celebrated. 
 
 "Baseball seems to be the only sport where cheating is looked upon with some degree of fondness," said Tampa lawyer Marquis Heilig, who writes a Tampa Bay Rays blog (TheRayArea.com) that is part of ESPN.com's "Sweet Spot" network. "If you're looking for your kids to learn life lessons, I guess you should put them in golf, not baseball." 
 
 Part of the game? 
 
 It's commonplace for professional golfers to call rules violations on themselves. At the PGA Championships, Dustin Johnson was penalized for grounding his club in a bunker after finishing the 18th hole in an apparent three-way tie. 
 
 It seemed harsh to casual golf fans, but officials and the golf establishment had a simple justification: Rules are rules. 
 
 "That has been the gentleman's game for years and years," said Pop Cuesta, the baseball coach at Jefferson High School since 1973. "That's not a good comparison. Baseball has its own way and what happened with Derek Jeter is part of the game." 
 
 Part of the game. You hear that a lot from baseball people. 
 
 Cuesta remembers learning something from a cousin who played professional baseball. If the ball comes in on you, the cousin said, pinch yourself on the arm. Leave a red mark. If the umpire sees it, you might get awarded first base. 
 
 "That stuff has been going on a long time," Cuesta said. 
 
 King High School coach Jim Macaluso said it's OK to steal signs from the dugout by picking up the pattern of an opposing coach. It's not OK for a baserunner to reach second, watch the catcher's signals, then tip off the batter on a curveball or inside pitch. 
 
 "You see pitches that just nick a puffed-out jersey, a guy turns into it, sells it, the umpire thinks he got hit," Macaluso said. "It is part of the game. It's the batter's job to get to first base. That was Derek Jeter's job. You're not going to refuse to go to first base. It's the umpire's job to get the call right." 
 
 The baseball philosophy runs counter to a popular sportsmanship television commercial, produced by the Foundation for a Better Life. In a tight high school basketball game, possession is awarded to the home team. But one player speaks up, saying he actually knocked the ball out of bounds. 
 
 "I touched it, Coach. It's their ball," the player says before apologizing to his disgusted teammates, realizing his honesty might decide the championship. 
 
 The coach, initially downcast, suddenly waves the player back: "Good call." 
 
 Idealistic? Probably. Unrealistic in the world of professional sports? Absolutely. 
 
 "Trust me, I'm not one to condone cheating, but there are different forms of cheating," said Jim Rome, host of a nationally syndicated sports radio program. "If you want to say to me, 'Well, I thought Jeter was different. … No, he's not. Not in that regard. 
 
 "Personally, I don't have a problem with this. And I don't think he let down our nation's youth. … Have you watched a lot of major league baseball? If you do, you know it happens all the time. How is this a news flash to anybody?" 
 
 Detractors and defenders 
 
 The news flash might be that America's sports fans, for the first time ever, are questioning the character of Jeter, a Tampa resident who does considerable local charitable work with his Turn 2 Foundation. 
 
 "I've heard this talk, but look, it's a baseball game," University of South Florida baseball coach Lelo Prado said. "Every parent should want their kid to be like Derek Jeter. He's one of the classiest people to ever play this game." 
 
 The Rays agree with that. 
 
 "I admire Derek a lot," Rays pitcher James Shields said. "He stands for everything that's right with this game." 
 
 Rays manager Joe Maddon was incredulous at the call, particularly because the ball caromed back into fair territory. 
 
 "I thought it was going to be a line drive to right field," Maddon said. 
 
 At the same time, Maddon added, "If one of our guys had done it, I would've applauded, too. It was a great performance." 
 
 Jeter admitted the same afterward. 
 
 He said his dramatic reaction was due to the bat's "vibration." 
 
 Pause. 
 
 "And acting." 
 
 "I've been hit before and they said it hit the bat," Jeter said. "So it goes both ways. Fortunately for us, it paid off at the time. But surely, it would have been a bigger story had we won the game." 
 
 Monday, on the first day of this week's Rays-Yankees three-game series, a reporter asked Jeter about his sterling reputation. 
 
 "It's not like I never make mistakes in my life," Jeter said. "I try to carry myself in the best manner possible." 
 
 Fair or not, a lot of people viewed Jeter in a different light Wednesday night. 
 
 "I know he does a lot of good for a lot of people," said Newsome, the mother of a Little League player. "Maybe I'm naïve. I guess I just expected better." 
 
 Reporter Joey Johnston can be reached at (813) 259-7353. 
 
 Share this: ||||| And, in the case of Jeter, who represented the tying run in a taut game, it allows a player to pretend that a pitch hit him when it did not. 
 
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 Fans from just about everywhere weighed in on Jeter’s performance Thursday, some applauding his cleverness, others condemning him as a fraud and not the role model he is supposed to be. 
 
 Those who make their living in baseball just shrugged. 
 
 “I cannot understand what the commotion is,” said the Fox baseball broadcaster Tim McCarver, a former major league catcher, as he took stock of the uproar. 
 
 “Why question that?” he said of Jeter’s actions. “I can’t believe anyone would say that’s cheating.” 
 
 Minnesota Twins Manager Ron Gardenhire, whose team has lost repeatedly to Jeter’s Yankees in the postseason, agreed. 
 
 “You have to be an actor in this game, you have to be,” he said. “It’s unfortunate, but it’s part of the game. Jeter, you could see him staring over there in the video, sly as a cat. It’s just the way it is. Call it what you want to call it, it happens. It’s happened forever.” 
 
 The play in question occurred in the top of the seventh, with one out and the Yankees trailing, Tampa Bay, 2-1, with first place on the line in the American League East. 
 
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 The first pitch from Chad Qualls came in on Jeter’s hands — where he often does get hit — and smacked the knob of his bat as he spun away. He tossed his bat, clutched his elbow and hopped toward the Yankees’ dugout. 
 
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 Having been awarded first base by the plate umpire, Lance Barksdale, Jeter continued to pretend he was in discomfort. Manager Joe Girardi raced out, as did the Yankees trainer, Gene Monahan, who examined Jeter’s arm. 
 
 “Geno acted more than I did, I guess,” Jeter said afterward. 
 
 Some of those who criticized Jeter on blog posts pointed to the elaborate way he feigned being hurt, saying his actions crossed over into outright dishonesty. They asked: Why not just jog to first right away? 
 
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 But Jeter probably had good cause to lather it on. After the ball hit his bat (and apparently grazed his uniform), it bounced into fair territory. The Rays even threw the ball to first, so Jeter knew that if the umpires reversed the initial call, he might be called out. 
 
 Rays Manager Joe Maddon was barking, the umpires were getting ready to huddle, a game was on the line. An Emmy performance was called for, and Jeter does have acting experience. And sure enough, after Jeter took first, Curtis Granderson homered to give the Yankees a temporary lead. 
 
 McCarver lauded Jeter’s awareness of what was at stake — that the umpires might change their minds, that they might need some extra convincing. 
 
 “What upset some people, perhaps, is that he was so demonstrative when it hit the bat, but to think that quickly is remarkable,” he said. “You can’t say, ‘No, the ball didn’t hit me.’ You’re trying to get on base; you’re trying to win the game.” 
 
 “It’s gamesmanship,” Bob Costas, another veteran baseball commentator, said approvingly of Jeter’s actions. “This is completely different from steroids or stealing signs with a pair of binoculars.” 
 
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 In his decade and a half in baseball, Jeter has built up respect as the captain of the Yankees and the winner of five championships. 
 
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 He is held in such high esteem that peers use him as a counterpoint to comment on others’ transgressions. In chiding Jeter’s teammate, Alex Rodriguez, for running across the pitcher’s mound earlier this season, Oakland’s Dallas Braden suggested that he “watch his captain a little more often.” 
 
 Curt Schilling slammed Rodriguez for his infamous slap play against the Boston Red Sox in the 2004 A.L. Championship Series with a barb that cut to Rodriguez’s insecurities and Jeter’s aura: “Would Derek Jeter ever do that?” he asked. “No chance.” 
 
 Rodriguez has a way of operating outside those unwritten rules. He was mocked for the slap play and called out by the umpires, a key moment in Boston’s historic comeback in that series. In 2007, he was belittled when he yelled “Ha!” as he ran past a Toronto infielder settling under a pop-up. The ball fell for a hit, and a brawl nearly ensued. 
 
 Had it been Rodriguez who feigned being hit by a pitch, he would have been called a clown — or worse. Jeter? No one is about to call him that. Instead, on Thursday, some in baseball were ready to smile along with him. 
 
 Hisanori Takahashi, the Japanese left-hander for the Mets, recalled a catcher for the Hiroshima Toyo Carp who would pretend he was hit by a pitch by pinching the back of his hand and leaving a red mark. 
 
 And Keith Hernandez, the Mets broadcaster and former first baseman, said he would have “no issue whatsoever” if he had been manning first and someone reached base on a phantom hit-by-pitch. 
 
 Would he say anything to the player? “I would call him Laurence Olivier and say, ‘Good one,’ ” Hernandez said.
– Last night was Derek Jeter's last All Star Game, and it went beautifully, as the Yankee captain went 2-for-2 with a double. There was just one problem: That double might have been a gimme. After he left the game, Adam Wainwright said that he wasn't exactly gunning for Jeter. "I was going to give him a couple of pipe shots. He deserved it," Wainwright said. "I didn't know he was going to hit a double or I would have changed my mind. I thought he was going to hit something hard to the right side for a single or an out. I probably should have pitched him a little bit better." Jeter laughed off the comments. "If he grooved it, thank you," he said. Wainwright backed off the remarks before the game was even over, saying he was joking. "I feel terrible about this if anyone's taking any credit away from Derek Jeter," he told Fox Sports reporter Erin Andrews. "It was mis-said. … I hope people realize I'm not intentionally giving up hits out there." The Cardinals ace is still sure to come under fire this week anyway, Jerry Crasnick at ESPN predicts, though he thinks Wainwright did baseball a favor "by exposing the massive problems inherent with what the All-Star Game has become in recent years. If there were any doubt, commissioner Bud Selig's 'This One Counts' initiative has outlived its usefulness."