"Origin Of The Problem"First off we have to ask ourselves "
What is wrong with using steroids in baseball?"
I know, I know, you're thinking that that is a pretty stupid question, and maybe even qualifies as rhetorical.
Think about it though, what is the essence of professional baseball players using a performance enhancing drug?
Why its
cheating of course...
cheatv. cheat·ed, cheat·ing, cheatsv. intr.
1. To act dishonestly; practice fraud.
2. To violate rules deliberately, as in a game: was accused of cheating at cards.
3. Informal. To be sexually unfaithful: cheat on a spouse.
Let's take a look at the second definition there, "
To violate rules deliberately, as in a game."
I think one facet of the definition of cheating that is missing in those definitions listed is this:
To violate the rules of a game deliberately in order to gain an unfair advantage.I mean that pretty much sums up the reason why baseball players have, and might continue to use, performance enhancing drugs. They can hit better, stronger, and farther with the help of a little syringe.
Of course lately whenever the topic of steroids and performance enhancing drugs in pro baseball is brought up, I'm surprised by the fact that nobody ever saw this coming.
Now I'm a sports fan, but I've never really been that big of a baseball fan. My lack of love and knowledge for the game though has not prevented me from knowing that cheating in some form or the other, has been a part of the game since its inception.
During my research for this article I came across many instances of cheating in pro baseball, the earliest? Well it wasn't so much an act of cheating as a scandal, but in its pure essence the
1919 "Black Sox" incident is in fact cheating. Members of the 1919 White Sox were supposedly bought off by gamblers, with ties to organized crime, to throw the 1919 World Series.
Now you may say: "
Gee they didn't cheat in order to give themselves an unfair advantage."
Well no, of course being paid off a great sum of money, to me, is gaining an "unfair advantage." The biggest travesty here was the members of the team cheating themselves, their manager, their fans, the opposing team, and the game of baseball itself!
So, wow, 1919 eh? That's a long time ago. Unfortunately, it is only the first in a series of dominoes that have fallen to bring us to the point where we are now.
Corked bats, tar pitch, spitballs, scuffing and cutting, sharpened spikes, stealing signs etc. etc.Oh no my friend, steroids has never been and never will be the "be all, end all" of cheating in baseball.
In 1944,
Nels Potter was the first pitcher to be suspended for throwing a "spitball."
Let's take a look at a list of pitchers who were known or proven to cheat while on the mound:
Mike Scott, scuffed balls.
Gaylord Perry, used spitballs and vaseline balls.
Joe Niekro, used pine tar, and was caught scuffing balls when a file fell out of his pocket while on the mound.
Whitey Ford, used wedding ring to cut ball, placed mud around the pitchers mound to load ball.
Preacher Roe, threw spitballs.
Rick Honeycutt, was caught with thumbtack taped to his finger for cutting balls.
Don Sutton, scuffed balls.
Kevin Gross, scuffed ball with sandpaper.
Brian Moehler, used sandpaper taped to thumb to scuff ball.
Lew Burdette, threw spitballs.
So that's 10 players in pro baseball history to have been known or caught cheating while on the mound. It would be foolish to think that they are/were the only ones.
How about modified bats?
Albert Belle, corked bats.
Norm Cash, corked bats.
Graig Nettles, used bat filled with "superballs."
Amos Otis, used corked and superballed bats.
George Brett, used bat with more pine tar than legal on it.
Billy Hatcher, used corked bat.
Wilton Guerrero, used corked bat.
Sammy Sosa, used corked bat.
Again that is only 8 of the players we
know of.
Some other various instances of cheating in pro baseball's history:
Bossard Family, famous for abusing their groundskeeping duties to give an advantage to their employers.
Pete Rose, bet on baseball games while manager of the Reds, bet on his own team.
Kent Hrbek, pulled Ron Gant off of first base and tagged him out in Game 2 of the 1991 World Series.
John Mcgraw, hid balls in the outfield, spiked opposing players, watered down base paths, and grew infield grass to deaden bunts.
Ty Cobb, got extra stolen bases because infielders were afraid of his sharpened spikes, might have bet on baseball, and thrown games.
1951 New York Giants, used elaborate sign stealing system at Polo Grounds.
John McGraw, held baserunners by the belt, tripped them, spiked them.
Maury Williams, while manager of the Seattle Mariners 1980-81, told groundskeepers to enlarge batters box toward the pitcher by a foot.
What is my point in listing all these incidents, supposed, proven, or otherwise?
My point is partly informative, because as we all know, you can't understand the situation you are in today without examining the past.
It is also partly to point out the irony that with all this cheating going on in Major League Baseball, that the so-called "Steroid Era" blindsided us, and took us by surprise.
Well,
I'm not surprised.
I'm also not surprised with the MLB's difficulties in addressing the problem. All the cheating I listed has been punished fairly softly, with the exception of the 1919 "Black" Sox, and Pete Rose.
So why is anybody surprised that when the issue of steroids began to creep into the game of baseball, that Major League Baseball themselves took a very soft stance on it.
It took a scandal, a book, and congress, to finally light a fire under the collective butts of the MLB. Let me tell you though, it was a pretty small fire.
You see if the MLB had addressed the general notion of cheating with harsher punishments and admonishment in all these decades of cheating, then maybe they wouldn't have to deal with the current pot of boiling water that they are sitting in.
Maybe we wouldn't be hearing about Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, BALCO, Jose Canseco, Game of Shadows, and everything else that we are bombarded with everyday in the world of sports media.
Or, maybe not. Maybe it was inevitable.
Whatever the case, those of us who cry foul at players using performance enhancers, also turned a blind eye to the whole enormity of cheating going on in professional baseball since it started.
This article was not meant to lay blame though, although there might be some of that in the next installment.
Again, the best way to start a story is to examine the background, so consider this a "prologue" in a book.
Or more succintly, the "prologue" to the story of steroids in professional baseball.
References used in this article:"Biggest Cheaters In Baseball (Fan List)""Biggest Cheaters In Baseball""Cheating: Baseball's Oldest Profession"
