Category: OLD SPORT SHORTS (Page 6 of 68)

Continued from Post #2587

The 1998 home run record chase between Sammy Sosa and Mark McGuire brought worldwide attention to performance enhancing drugs. In 2002, the Major League Baseball Players Association adopted mandatory testing, and in 2003 the federal government got involved with an investigation of the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative. A grand jury heard testimony from athletes like Marion Jones, Jason Giambi, and Barry Bonds, ultimately determining that 27-athletes received steroids from this lab. There was also the Mitchell Report in 2007, another investigation regarding steroid use in sports. 

As a result, mandatory testing expanded to include other stimulants in 2005, and in 2011 human growth hormones (HGH) were banned. The Biogenesis scandal broke in 2013, alleging that Alex Rodriguez and Ryan Braun acquired HGH from an anti-aging clinic. Thirteen players were suspended as a result. There is nothing wrong with a player’s motivation to improve body and mind. Proper diet, vitamins, and supplements are a first step, but sometimes what you put in your body can get you in trouble. In some cases, an athlete may not even know the impact of the contents, so drugs will always be subject to controversy and there will undoubtedly be new developments. 

There are other tricks of the trade that fall into the category of cheating. Altering the facility grounds typically involves conniving people in the organization outside of the players themselves. Some might consider this clever gamesmanship, but there are rules against it. Airflow manipulation to change the trajectory of the ball was the big concern at the Metrodome and other indoor facilities. Is this a home field advantage or blatant violation? In 1981, Seattle Mariners manager Maury Wills instructed the grounds crew to draw the batter’s box one foot longer than allowed to prevent his player, Tom Paciorek, from stepping out of the box after complaints from the Oakland Athletics. Naturally, their coach Billy Martin spotted the modification before the game, always seeming to find the smallest indiscretions and holes in the rules. Wills was suspended for two-days. Groundskeepers have been known to water down the basepaths to slow running speed or slope the infield to keep bunts in play. These changes were made depending on the opponent.

The strategy of the game has also changed. Consider the inaugural rule of the Knickerbocker Base Ball Club back in 1845: “The ball must be pitched, not thrown, for the bat.” The pitcher’s role back then and for many years following was to put the ball in play for batters to hit. There then came a point where pitchers began intentionally throwing pitches that were difficult to hit, underhanded styles disappeared, and bending the elbow was allowed, soon evolving into today’s overhand delivery. Pitchers, as always, tried to get away with what they could and still do!

Lying and cheating about age has always been a factor in any sport. A player takes advantage of competing with younger kids, sometimes influenced by parents, or suddenly becomes younger to appeal to the scouts. Others have changed their names to cover previous involvement like Roberto Hernández from Puerto Rico and Juan Carlos Oviedo from the Dominican Republic. Denny Almonte competed in the 2001 Little League World Series, despite being two years older than the 12-year cutoff. Controlling such age fabrication is a major concern, particularly when it comes to international competition. Similarly, the 2014 Little League World Series runner-up was disqualified after it was discovered that many of the players lived outside the acceptable geographic range. Even at the amateur level in softball and baseball leagues, “ringers” are often brought in to pad a team’s lineup.

It’s not just great players that are enlisted to help the winning effort. The St. Louis Browns famously sent 
Eddie Gaedel to bat after signing a contract with team owner, Bill Veeck. His 3’7″ frame made the strike zone exceptionally small, so naturally he walked and was replaced by a pinch runner. Silly cheating tricks like this include a minor-league catcher who hid a potato in his glove, intentionally deceiving the baserunner as to the actual ball. Finally, New York Mets manager, Bobby Valentine, after being ejected from a game in 1999, disguised himself in a hat, sunglasses, and fake mustache to gain entrance back into the dugout. He was quickly recognized and later suspended for two-games. Are these questionable actions really considered cheating or just good entertainment?

To be continued…
 

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Continued from Post # 2584

After Judge Landis died in 1944, there was a long lull before the next banishment. During the tenures of Commissioners Happy Chandler (1945–1951), Ford Frick (1951–1965), Spike Eckert (1965–1968), Bowie Kuhn (1969–1984) and Peter Ueberroth (1984–1989), only three players (or former players) were banned for life. All three were banned by Kuhn, and all three were later reinstated.

Peter Ueberroth reversed the silly Bowie Kuhn decision to have Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle banned in 1980 and 1983 respectively. Both were retired at the time and no longer involved with baseball but were hired by Atlantic City casinos as greeters and autograph signers. Kuhn opined that a casino was “no place for a baseball hero and Hall of Famer.” Ueberroth’s counter was that the pair were “more a part of baseball than perhaps anyone else.” Pete Rose could probably benefit from this type of sentiment. 

“By the time of Kuhn’s tenure, players had organized the Major League Baseball Players Association and negotiated the first Basic Agreement with the owners. Among other things the Agreement provided, for the first time, an independent process through which active players could appeal disciplinary decisions (up to and including lifetime bans) by League presidents or the Commissioner. As of 2024, no such process exists for personnel who are not members of the MLBPA.”

On April Fool’s Day of 1989, Angelo Bartlett “Bart” Giamatti took over the office from Peter Ueberroth. He died five months later of a sudden heart attack. The job does take its toll, not even lasting to see the World Series that year, yet he ruled over Pete Rose’s ineligibility on August 24,1989, a mutual agreement. He is allowed to apply for reinstatement once a year indefinitely, stirring the annual controversy. Should the fact that he admitted to gambling and not on his own team take away from his honors on the diamond. So far, 3,000 hits don’t seem to count!

Francis Thomas “Fay” Vincent Jr. became commissioner 8-days later. He first dealt with George Steinbrenner, New York Yankees owner in 1990 for trying to discredit Dave Winfield. It backfired on him and led to an investigation that tied Steinbrenner to a small-time gambler. Vincent then took control of the team away from him. His other key decision in 1992 involved Yankee player, Steve Howe, after receiving seven suspensions related to drug use. Both of these bans were quickly reversed, erasing most of Vincent’s work.

The position fell into limbo following Vincent’s resignation, as an Acting Commissioner, Allan Huber “Bud” Selig was appointed to fill the term. He was ultimately elected in 1998 and oversaw the disbandment of the American and National League offices, the 1994 strike, the introduction of the wild card, the beginnings of interleague play, revenue sharing, and the establishment of the World Baseball Classic in 2006. Cincinnati Reds owner Marge Schott was banned in 1996 for repeatedly making racial slurs but was reinstated in 1998 as the first and only woman to date on baseball’s blacklist. 

Current Commissioner, Robert “Rob” Dean Manfred, followed Selig’s retirement on January 25, 2015. “To date, he has banned the same amount of people as his four previous successors and is second only to Landis for most people placed on the permanent ineligibility list.” Jenry Mejia, New York Mets pitcher was banned on February 12, 2016 after testing positive multiple times for performance-enhancing drugs. He sought and was granted reinstatement in July, 2018. Former St. Louis Cardinal scouting director, Chris Correa was banned for hacking the Houston Astros scouting database. In addition, “he was imprisoned, thus becoming the first person to be incarcerated for activities that resulted in a ban from the game.” John Coppolella, former Atlanta Braves general manager, was permanently banned by Manfred for circumvention of international free agent rules. He was reinstated in 2023. Brandon Taubman, former Houston Astros assistant general manager, was a 2019 addition to “the list.” Inappropriate comments and sign stealing were the charges. Mickey Callaway, former pitching coach of the Los Angeles Angels, was banned in 2021 after an investigation uncovered numerous allegations of sexual harassment. 

As far as actual players, the Manfred list is much shorter, but it includes a 2011 Hall of Famer. Roberto Alomar was banned in 2021 for sexual harassment, but he did not lose his place in Cooperstown. Could this eventually set a precedence for a reversed situation? Ferguson Jenkins of the Texas Rangers was banned and reinstated in 1980 for cocaine, hashish, and pot, but still made the Hall of Fame in 1991. Finally, in June of 2024, “San Diego Padres infielder Tucupita Marcano was banned from baseball for life after betting on the sport and four others were suspended for one year by Major League Baseball on Tuesday in the game’s biggest gambling scandal in decades.”

In Manfred’s eyes, a Pete Rose reinstatement is still an “unacceptable risk to baseball.” Who’s the bad guy? Baseball doesn’t have the only Hall of Fame with an attitude. According to founder, bassist and primary songwriter Nikki Sixx, Motley Crue is banned from the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame due to their “bad behavior.” There’s that “bad” word again!

To Be Continued….

Or should I say Hall of Shame?

I’ve often thought that Cooperstown should have a separate wing for the Bad Boys. After all, there are some “Bad Boys” in the Basketball Hall of Fame, with the induction of those Detroit Pistons of the late 1980s who earned this gritty nickname like Isiah Thomas, Joe Dumars, and Bill Laimbeer. They were just tough guys on the court and because they were hated and supposedly “played dirty” they were also accused of cheating their way to the championship. Sometimes, rough play can be considered cheating, just as being stronger, bigger, or craftier. The Bad Boys section for baseball, however, would be reserved for the guys who the writers and Hall of Fame executives shunned as cheaters, unworthy of a place on the hallowed walls of this upstanding institution.

So far, the “bad” have been left out in favor of the good, even in these times when bad can mean good, so certainly those currently banned players have their role in the history of the game. There are those guilty by association, groups and pairs like the Chicago Black Sox eight, Jack O’Connor and Harry Howell of the St. Louis Browns, along with Jimmy O’Connell and Cozy Dolan of the New York Giants. Those accused alone were Gene Paulette, Pete Rose, Horace Fogel, Lee Magee, Ray Fisher, Phil Douglas, Jerry Mejia, John Coppolella, Bennie Kauff, and Chris Correa. 24 players in all have been banned by Major League Baseball. Most of these men would not be known except for their indiscretion. 

I can remember, as a child, encountering my first cheaters, those that bent the rules in their favor. They pushed and shoved, bullied their way to the front, even tried to trip you up. They peeked at your answers on exam day and stole the candy bar from your lunch sack, or worse yet your lunch money.  Some got caught but too many others didn’t. “Rules are made to be broken,” was their philosophy, and they took every opportunity to make themselves a winner, especially in the sand lots where there were no referees. If not, they blamed you for their loss. 

Sore losers and poor sports are part of every game, organized or not. Those looking for the easy way to victory are obviously under a lot of pressure to win at any cost. This was initially fueled by peers, parents, and even coaches. 

Gambling has gotten many in trouble, as has stealing signals, leaving early on a tag, doctoring the ball or bat, bullying, doping, avoiding the tag, altering the grounds, and age fabrication. It extends from players to top level management and ownership.  Those at any level who deliberately violate or circumvent the game’s rules to gain an unfair advantage against an opponent. However, there is also a fine line between cheating and gamesmanship that creates a gray area in reinforcement rulings. The million-dollar question becomes “What can I get away with?”

To be continued…..