Cheating in Sports

On September 15th Derek Jeter jumped back from a pitch acting like he was hit on the hand, the trainer even came out, and the replay showed it hit the bat and so it should have been ruled a live ball as it rolled to the pitcher's mound. On the same day, Braves right fielder Jason Heyward was on first base and Martin Prado hit a ball between 1st and 2nd base and it hit the spike on Heyward's cleat as he was running to 2nd base. Jason was honest about the play and when Bobby Cox came out to argue for a second opinion he told his coach there was no need because the ball did hit him. I liked it when Heyward did that even though it was an out for my favorite team. I think players should do the honorable thing and be honest, not trying to get away with something by tricking the referees.

Players have always tried to cheat in baseball, it's one of the sport's most famous attributes. In Nascar you hear the phrase "if you ain't cheatin', you ain't tryin'". But in golf players call their own penalties...that is because they actually want to beat someone within the rules instead of trying to get away with something.

If the idea is to get away with it if you can then steroids in baseball should not be frowned upon because it was not against the rules during the steroid era in baseball (1995-2005). If they are going to commend a player for his "gamesmanship" in pretending he got hit by a pitch, that he tagged the runner, a catcher moving his glove back into the strikezone, etc. then why are those same folks demonizing players who cheated by way of steroids? Now it's against the rules, but it wasn't then, so really it wasn't even cheating. But using Vasoline to doctor up a pitch, stealing signs or scuffing balls, that seems to be looked at like, 'it's all good if you got away with it'.

When you played football in the yard when you were a kid you didn't commit pass interference because you knew it was the wrong thing to do. When you played basketball in the driveway you didn't foul when the guy has got an open lane to the hole because you knew he beat you there and going to the foul line in a pick-up game is stupid. But when it comes to organized sports, it seems like players want to get any edge they can and make the referee call it, and if he doesn't then that's just gamesmanship.

I don't like all the cheating and trying to get away with stuff on the field of play. I think that if you know your out, or that you step out of bounds, or whatever penalty you committed you should be honest and not try to trick the ref. In order to do this I think the ref should only intervene in a play when there is uncertainty. So if there is a dispute on whether or not the fielder tagged the runner then he will make the call, but if the runner knows he is out then he should just walk back to the dugout.

JB