MLB Has Tolerated Cheaters Too Long

Major-league baseball has always tolerated some level of cheating.

From sign stealing, to spit and doctored balls, and corked bats, players and organizations have found ways to — let’s hear it — gain a competitive advantage.

Until now.

What the Houston Astros did in 2017 and were found guilty of this past off-season, was using electronics and a system to help them swipe the signs of their opponents and translate the information by banging a trash can and relay the type of the next pitch to their batters. Houston did this throughout 2017 when it won the American League West Division, AL Divisional round, ALCS and the World Series. 

General Manager Jeff Luhnow and Manager A.J. Hinch were given one-year suspensions by Commissioner Rob Manfred. Owner Jim Crane was fined $5 million – a drop in the bucket – and the organization stripped of four draft picks (first -and second-round picks in 2020 and 2021). Crane subsequently fired Luhnow and Hinch.

Manfred justifiably has been criticized for his handling of the investigation and subsequent punishments, which some feel were not harsh enough.

Also, as part of the fallout, Boston Red Sox Manager Alex Cora – was suspended for one year -- for his role in the cheating as he was the team’s bench coach. 

While Cora, hired as Boston’s manager after the 2017 season, was cleared of wrongdoing in an investigating into the 2018 World Series champion Red Sox’ use of suspected illegal sign-stealing efforts, he has been replaced as manager.

The fallout of the Astros’ investigation also cost newly-hired New York Mets’ manager Carlos Beltran his job. Beltran was the senior member of Houston’s 2017 team and the lone player identified as being part of the sign-stealing scheme.

The Astros’ victims in succession in the 2017 post-season were the Boston Red Sox (ALDS), New York Yankees (ALCS) and Los Angeles Dodgers (World Series).

Anyone really believe that any of those teams – with the tradition, financial resources and influence – didn’t know something wrong was going on? I don’t.

In the World Series, during one of Dodgers’ ace Clayton Kershaw’s starts, he threw 51 sliders or curveballs and there wasn’t one – not one – swing and miss by a Houston batter. Think about that.

Bigger question? Why didn’t that come to light before the end of February 2020? In this era of immediate news, analytics and a statistic for anything and everything, it is mind boggling this was not uncovered until 28 months later.

I’m not buying.

The Dodgers were aware of that stat – as it was happening. Others who track pitches knew – as it was happening. So why was there no mention?

Because baseball has always tolerated some level of cheating.

Players are part of the same union – the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA).

You don’t tell on a union brother or brothers, in this case. Ever.

Some union members might bitch and moan about a team cheating, but no one was willing to utter a word to any authority – at least in an official manner.

What were Astros players supposed to do -- run and tell the media: “Hey, some of our guys or our team is cheating?”

Let’s be real.

An old saying use to apply in sports at every level: “What goes on in the locker room (clubhouse in the case of baseball) stays in the locker room.” Years back, athletes and players adhered to that belief. Not so much today.

I understand why not one Astros player would “rat out” anyone.

No player wants to be a pariah. It could cost them a career and a lot of money.

You think the Astros were the lone organization cheating?

Players or coaches who are skilled in the art of stealing signs with their eyes have been hailed through the years by their teammates or fellow coaches. That practice has long been accepted. It’s part of baseball.

The addition of an elaborate electronic system to steal signs – a game changer -- is an entirely different level of cheating.

The Astros got off easy. Before anyone says players should have been suspended, that went out the door when the MLB granted them immunity. The MLBPA’s presence is powerful.

What happened on the field, happened. It cannot be erased. Houston won the 2017 World Series. No matter how loud the cries are from the Dodgers, yours are not more relevant than those of the Red Sox or Yankees. They were cheated as well. But the Dodgers did not win the World Series and should not be awarded the distinction just because they were the National League representative. Who’s to say the Red Sox or Yankees would not have defeated Los Angeles. History cannot be revised.

I do think the Astros’ World Series and AL championships should have been vacated. That would have been an appropriate punishment.

Crane deserved more discipline. He was complicit. He knew.

The suspensions of Luhnow and Hinch should have been longer.

The shutdown of the 2020 season has helped the Astros because as a team and individually this was going to be a most difficult season to navigate. The questions about 2017 were abound in Spring Training and would have dogged them all season. Opposing fans were going to be relentlessly tough on them and indignant toward them.

No matter how talented a team Houston is – and it is talented – those things would mentally, then physically, exhaust and haunt them and perhaps break them.

Clearly opposing pitchers were in search of retribution in the form of inside, purpose pitches and others that would intentionally hit batters.

That was happening, make no mistake. Who knows what that could have led to.

So as MLB contemplates a re-opening of the 2020 season, the Astros will be hoping for games without fans and a reduced media presence. As for opposing pitchers and teams seeking revenge, that is not going to change no matter the circumstances.

Pitcher Mike Fiers, who pitched for Houston in 2017, blew the whistle or snitched – whichever way you want to label it --on the Astros to a couple national baseball writers about the cheating.

Fiers, who was left off Houston’s 2017 playoff roster and non-tendered that off-season, certainly had an axe to grind.

Fiers, who currently plays for Oakland – an AL West Division rival of the Astros -- is viewed differently in the game and to the general public.

The timing off his reveal of the 2017 cheating is curious – two years later and after a 2019 extended post-season run by Houston that ended in a World Series loss to Washington.

Ultimately, it’s a good thing that Fiers, along with at least three other members of the 2017 Astros brought the “above and beyond” cheating to light.

I don’t think he is the “hero” some make him out to be, though. He’ll impress me as a hero when he returns his World Series ring and winner’s share (the financial payout to individuals on the World Series championship team). Some think he is as entitled to those rewards as every other member of that team. He made himself different when he blew that whistle. 

Here’s hoping Fiers’ first appearance against the Astros this season will be televised.

The hope is, MLB’s discipline of Houston – even though it was lighter than it should have been – will level the playing field.

But MLB’s tolerance of cheating through history, save for the short reign of  commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti  from April 1, 1989 to September 1 the same year when he died of a heart attack, is not debatable.

The hypocrisy of baseball writers of who they vote into the Hall of Fame and those who are being blackballed is amazing.

Gaylord Perry, a known cheater who wrote and published a book in 1974 titled “Me & The Spitter,” was elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1991, his third year of eligibility.

Perry used the Spitter, an illegal pitch, and the threat of the Spitter, to rattle hitters and help him become the first pitcher in MLB history to win the Cy Young Award in both leagues.

Yet, a disparaging word is rarely heard about Perry.

MLB ignored his cheating for nearly all of his career. Perry pitched for eight different teams in his 22-year career that spanned from 1962-1983. He had 314 wins, 3,534 strikeouts and a 3.11 ERA . Perry was a five-time All-Star and pitched a no-hitter in 1968 for San Francisco, cheating the entire way. The Giants retired his number, 36.

Despite Perry’s well-known penchant for throwing the Spitter and doctoring the baseball, he was not ejected for throwing an illegal pitch until August 23, 1982 – his 21^stseason.

Interestingly, Perry put himself in the middle of controversy in July 1983 when a home run by his Kansas City teammate George Brett was negated. Brett’s blast gave the Royals a, 5-4 , lead over the Yankees in the top of the ninth inning. The hit was challenged by New York manager Billy Martin, claiming Brett used an illegal bat because pine tar was too far up the bat, therefore breaking a rule.

After conferencing with his crew, home plate umpire Tim McClelland called Brett out, ending the game and handing the Yankees a 4-3 victory. The ruling led to Brett charging onto the field and the umpire, erupting a riotous scene at Yankee Stadium.

Perry, a member of the Royals’ pitching staff, came onto the playing field and snatched the bat from McClelland’s clutches and ran with the bat into Kansas City’s third-base dugout and into the runway leading to the Royals’ clubhouse.

Yankees’ security personnel, one of the umpires and a uniformed member of the Royals charged after Perry, who handed the evidence to a bat boy to hide it in the clubhouse. The bat boy was caught by umpire Joe Brinkman.

Kansas City protested the out call and the Royals’ appeal was upheld by AL president Lee McPhail and Kansas City then held on to win the game, 5-4. Perry was retroactively ejected for his part – the final ejection of his career.

For all his shenanigans, Perry’s inclusion in the Hall of Fame is rarely challenged or discussed.

At the same time, Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens – sure-fire Hall of Famers who are connected to steroids usage but never convicted of such usage – are being blocked by baseball writers because of their suspected steroid usage. Similarly, Dave Parker is being blocked because of his drug usage and link to the Pittsburgh drug trials of 1985.

Through the years, baseball has turned a blind eye to the use of “greenies” – amphetamines used excessively in the MLB in the 1970s and 1980s and until baseball instituted random drug testing on the players.

Amphetamines amp up the central nervous system, creating feelings of wakefulness, euphoria and sharper concentration.

Hall of Famer Chipper Jones, a third baseman for the Atlanta Braves, was quoted in the “Pittsburgh Post-Gazette”  once: “I don’t want to say guys are addicted, but it’s like putting on your uniform. You have your glove, your batting gloves, your bat, you take your greenie and you’re ready to go.”

The use of greenies and like performance-enhancing drugs pervaded the game in a manner even steroids didn’t come close to doing.

Perhaps, the Astros’ cheating scandal will prompt MLB and Manfred to more diligently pursue, investigate, and penalize illegal activity.

It is long overdue. 

My blog will appear on a regular basis and will focus on sports, opinions, notes, features, fiction, and some trivia for good measure.

John Sacco

sacman18@comcast.net

@sacco_john