In the 5th inning of game 4 of the 2009 ALCS between the Yankees and Angels, Jorge Posada and Robinson Cano were each tagged out at 3rd base by Angels catcher Mike Napoli. 3rd base umpire Tim McClelland called Posada out but Cano safe although it was clear that neither player had been touching 3rd base when tagged. A description of this play (and a few others) with video can be found on mlb.com.

The discussions I've seen have focused on the blown call by McClelland. But why didn't Cano simply raise his hand and declare himself out? He must've known this was the case.

You may laugh but I think this is a deeply interesting and important question. I'm not suggesting that any bang-bang play should be a candidate for this sort of self declaration, just that this extreme case was an opportunity for sportsmanship to win out over confusion.

Put another way, how great would it be if Cano had done that? What a brilliant story it would've made! I believe this is how we should live our lives and raise our children and if we're going to support the concept of professional athletes we should hold them — of all people — to this standard.

This is a much more interesting problem for MLB to consider than the question of the quality of individual umpires.