The Ethics of Baseball

How can you condemn cheating in a game where the players are expected to "steal" bases?

David Jacobson has done a remarkable job in researching and writing this week's business of baseball feature package, talking about salaries, the revenue sharing model and the MLB's legally sanctioned monopoly of a game that made more than $6 billion in revenues last year alone.

But what about the ethics of the game? Seems like every year there are numerous allegations of cheating by players, coaches and even groundskeepers.

Some notable examples:

Hiding balls â€" Hiding the ball to fool a player into stepping off the base to be tagged. Not actually illegal, but sneaky. Remember the A's, Billy Martin, and "Billy Ball?"

Shouting â€" Letting out a yelp or false direction to confuse a rival team's player. Also not actually against the rules, but underhanded. In 2006, Alex Rodriguez ("A-Rod") shouted "Ha!" in order to throw off Toronto player, Howie Clark, who was trying to catch a pop fly. Some were incensed at this "Little League" tactic.

Spitballs â€" Doctoring the ball with saliva or, just as often, sticky stuff, like Vaseline, that the pitcher places in his mouth before stepping out to the mound. Whitey Ford and Don Sutton were supposed to have been two world class spit-ballers.

Scuffballs and cutballs â€" Using a bit of sandpaper to scuff the ball or a sharp edge to lacerate it, making it fly erratically to confuse the batter. Legend has it that Yogi Berra used to cut balls on a sharpened shin-guard buckle. We know where he wound up. Gaylord Perry supposedly ball-doctored his way right into the Hall of Fame using both spitballs and scuffballs.

Corked bats â€" Hollowing out the core of a wooden bat and filling it with cork to make it lighter without diminishing its hitting power. Sammy Sosa is the most famous recent example of a player getting caught with a corked bat. Back in 1994, The Chicago White Sox player, Albert Belle, was suspected of using a corked bat, which was confiscated for inspection after the game. The team then sent relief pitcher, Jason Grimsley, through the Comiskey Park's ducting like James Bond to switch bats before the suspect one could be inspected.

Groundskeeping â€" Doctoring the park for home field advantage. A groundskeeper for the Cleveland Indians in the 1920s, Emil Bossard, would move the park's portable fences back and forth. His son, Gene, also an Indian's groundskeeper, would freeze certain balls making them heavier. Then his son, Roger, would soften base paths, making bases harder to steal.

Drugs â€" Doping with amphetamines, steroids and/or hormones. Doping's been around almost as long as baseball. Teams used to offer amphetamines, known as "greenies" because of their color. Allegedly, Willie Mays kept them in his locker. The above-mentioned Grimsley is involved in a scandal allegedly involving HGH, or "human growth hormone." And even the most casual sports-watcher is aware of Barry Bonds' travails over his alleged use of performance-enhancing steroids.

In baseball, cheating may draw ire from high minded sports journalists, TV pundits and a team's rivals. But to a team's fans, a gutsy cheat more often draws a knowing wink and a canny, if crooked, grin. It's a game in which a really clever cheat is as often honored as it is pilloried.

In a sport like that, how do you tell where the line is?

As one NBC sports commentator, Mike Celizic, asked a few years back, "If amphetamines were okay, if cutting the ball was OK, if stealing signs was OK, if throwing spitters was OK, why were steroids not OK?"

(Image courtesy Random Factor via Flickr, CC 2.0)