# Most unsportsmanlike and sportsmanlike athletes by sport **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [March 31, 2019, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unsportsmanlike-and-sportsmanlike-athletes-by-sport/831801 "2019-03-31T06:43:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Snarky\_Kong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2019, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unsportsmanlike-and-sportsmanlike-athletes-by-sport/831801/61 "2019-04-12T12:26:32Z")
Diego Costa just got an 8 game ban for telling the red he was going to “shit on your whore of a mother.” ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2019, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unsportsmanlike-and-sportsmanlike-athletes-by-sport/831801/62 "2019-04-12T13:02:10Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > Distance runners in general. > Even high school cross-country/distance track is devoid of trash talking and such. The same is true - so far as I can tell - with ultramarathoners and trail runners. Perhaps because it’s a niche sport and the community of elite ultrarunners is small, but they all seem extremely competitive, but also very supportive of each other. The worst thing I’ve ever heard anyone say about another runner is that he’s “a little bit arrogant”. (But he still gets cheered when he wins.) I suspect ultrarunners see the mountains and the weather and the trail as their true opponents. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2019, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unsportsmanlike-and-sportsmanlike-athletes-by-sport/831801/63 "2019-04-12T13:42:03Z")
> [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](#): > > I suspect ultrarunners see the mountains and the weather and the trail as their true opponents. That’s going to lead to some fascinating trash talk. “You call yourself a mountain? I had a harder climb getting onto your mom last night!” ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2019, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unsportsmanlike-and-sportsmanlike-athletes-by-sport/831801/64 "2019-04-12T13:51:04Z")
> [@Snarky\_Kong](#): > > Diego Costa just got an 8 game ban for telling the red he was going to “shit on your whore of a mother.” Did Costa ever follow through? ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_T-Cups](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ed655f/32.png) [@Sir\_T-Cups](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_T-Cups)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2019, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unsportsmanlike-and-sportsmanlike-athletes-by-sport/831801/65 "2019-04-12T14:05:37Z")
> [@Snarky\_Kong](#): > > Diego Costa just got an 8 game ban for telling the red he was going to “shit on your whore of a mother.” Was that a threat or a promise from a REALLY understanding fellow-fetishist? ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2019, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unsportsmanlike-and-sportsmanlike-athletes-by-sport/831801/66 "2019-04-12T14:41:24Z")
> [@Skywatcher](#): > > Catchers trying to fool the home plate ump by moving their mitt into the strike zone after the fact. > [@Covfefe](#): > > I don’t think so. To be clear: I wasn’t referring to framing a borderline call but rather a catch so far out of the zone that even the announcers can see it and hope the ump doesn’t notice that the ball ended up in a different location from where it was originally caught. ---
**Author:** ![Covfefe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ee7513/32.png) [@Covfefe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Covfefe)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2019, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unsportsmanlike-and-sportsmanlike-athletes-by-sport/831801/67 "2019-04-12T15:11:04Z")
> [@Skywatcher](#): > > To be clear: I wasn’t referring to framing a borderline call but rather a catch so far out of the zone that even the announcers can see it and hope the ump doesn’t notice that the ball ended up in a different location from where it was originally caught. I’m not sure I’d always assume that’s always voluntary on the part of the catcher though. I think sometimes one’s glove may end up over the corner of the plate out of habit, when a pitch doesn’t cross the part of the plane he expected it to. ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2019, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unsportsmanlike-and-sportsmanlike-athletes-by-sport/831801/68 "2019-04-15T00:01:44Z")
Even though the OP mentioned teams only I’ll mention some players because what they hey, “when in Rome”: in hockey, we have Ulf Samuelsson, Claude Lemieux, Chris Simon. There could be a few others… In the Stanley Cup Play-offs, players shake hands at the end of each play-off series. I always wonder if they ever try to sneak in chirps during that. > [@asahi](#): > > MLB in general strikes me as unusually [un]sportsmanlike in that teams generally don’t shake hands with each other after games. Basketball is the only team sport I can think of where after every game the majority of players shake hands/high five/say hi. And there’s this commenter from [Quora](https://www.quora.com/Why-do-NBA-and-NFL-players-shake-hands-after-the-game-but-not-MLB-and-NHL-players) > [@](#): > > It is not convenient for baseball. Unlike the other sports, where both teams (parts of them anyway) are afield all the time, in baseball only the defensive team is on the diamond, while the offensive team has the batter, the on-deck batter, and no more than three baserunners. Everyone else is in the dugout, while the relief pitchers are out in the distant bullpens, and anyone already out of the game may be in the locker room, showered and in street clothes ready to leave. Baseball players are all scattered. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unsportsmanlike-and-sportsmanlike-athletes-by-sport/831801.md?page=3)