Just run, dammit.

Baseball broadcasters are at their righteous best when berating players for not running out grounders and pop-ups, and while they are 100-percent right, rarely do we get to see major consequences of not running -- or of running.

But the last two days have given us two examples. The first one will be forgotten easily. David Ortiz was lollygagging when Johnny Damon dropped his routine fly ball in left field Thursday at Fenway Park. Ortiz ended up with a single when he should have been at least at second base, no matter how slow he may be. The inning ended one batter later, so Ortiz's poor baserunning, like Damon's embarrassing error, was rendered meaningless.

Much more meaningful was Luis Castillo's drop of Alex Rodriguez's routine pop-up behind second base, which should have sealed an 8-7 win for the Mets. The tying run, Derek Jeter, could have walked home -- and Jeter almost never turns off his hustle. Mark Teixeira, however, needed to be motoring to score from first base. Most players would have been taking it easy, expecting, understandably, the ball to be caught. Teixeira, however, was doing what he should have been doing -- running as if he wanted to score the winning run in the event the ball was dropped. It was, and he did. The Yankees caught the type of break you can hope for about once every 15 years.

The major lesson to be learned, however, should not be that it pays to run in case a ball is dropped. It should be this: Major League ballplayers are able-bodied men. There is absolutely no reason not to be running hard on every grounder, or on every fly ball or pop-up with two outs.

I know. "Keep dreaming, Phil." Sad.