Time for some role reversal.

Watching the Boston Red Sox-Cleveland Indians game on TVMonday night, I saw Manny Ramirez hit a towering fly ball off the left-field wall at Jacobs Field.

He could have jogged into second base with a double had he started jogging from the time he left the batter's box.

Instead, he hesitated to admire his hit, then started into his home-run trot. Once the ball stayed in the yard, Ramirez had no choice but to stay at first base.

Moments later, a teammate grounded into a double play. As Ramirez returned to the dugout, he received high-fives and fist-bumps from his team in the dugout.

Watching the Prospect-East Butler American Legion game the day before, an East Butler player hit a hard fly ball that was caught. East Butler was trailing at the time.

As that hitter returned to his dugout, a teammate complimented him for making good contact.

Another teammate yelled:"Forget about that. We need baserunners!"

What's wrong with this picture?

On one hand, we have a major league team — a first-place team, no less — congratulating a player whose lack of hustle just cost that team a double play.

On the other hand, we have an American Legion player well in touch with the game situation who was disappointed because a hard-hit ball did not result in a needed baserunner for his team.

Last time I looked, amateur baseball players are supposed to learn from the professionals.

In this case — and it's not an isolated one — the professional players could learn from the amateurs.

Being a baseball fan, I watch a lot of major league ball, both at PNCPark (hold the Pirates jokes, please) and on the tube.

The lack of fundamentals, inability to bunt, questionable strategy, inexcusable baserunning and lack of all-out effort is all over the major leagues today.

A longtime Legion baseball manager from Steubenville, Ohio, who won a few state titles in his day, once told me that the bunt is the most effective weapon in the game when executed properly.

There is no defense for a good bunt. If you couldn't bunt, you couldn't play for his team.

There are No. 2 hitters on major league teams who can't bunt. There are major league players who refuse to bunt.

The stolen base, hit-and-run and suicide squeeze bunt are becoming obsolete in baseball — professional baseball, that is.

Plenty of that stuff still goes on in high school and Legion ball.

Seneca Valley graduate Dom Duggan laid down 27 sacrifice bunts as the No. 2 batter for Coastal Carolina this spring. Now he's playing rookie ball for the San Francisco Giants.

If he keeps that bunt thing up in the pros, he'll be considered a freak.

Maybe he should become a free swinger, jog to first base, try to steal third with nobody out or with two outs, or try advancing to third on a ground ball to shortstop.

Congratulations, son. You're a big leaguer.