Excellent point. The spitball didn’t hurt Gaylord Perry get into the Hall. A corked bat is a minor offense as far as baseball is concerned.
Baseball has had a mentality for generations, that if you ain’t cheating, you ain’t trying. They have had vaseline balls, scuffing the ball, spit balls ,razor blades in mitts, pine tar, amphetimine use, HGH, steroids and many other attempts to cheat a little. They have had greens keepers water the field excessively to slow down a running team and help bunting. It has been part of the game.
The steroids problem has caused them to re-evaluate the game . They appear to be trying to clean it up. Political pressure and bad press will eventually win out. But you can be sure that chemists and lab rats are busy trying to find better masking agents and new performance enhancing rugs. When they come up with them, players will use them.
Next you’re gonna tell me Pete Rose took amphetamines or something. I’d be like, well… soooooo surprised.
I don’t care much because there is so much cheating going on that corked bats, fingernail files, spit balls, Vaseline, sand paper and other timeless cheats are inherently part of the game. These things are part of baseball – part of what we adore about the game (right?), along with managers wearing team uniforms, fields of various dimensions and all the other quirks that make it special.
I want that stuff going on. * I want to read ten years from now that Jamie Moyer knew so many people over the years that hotel managers would put sleeping pills in the visiting teams’ food to put them into a trance that prevented them from hitting a 68 MPH fastball that broke funny because he dabbed it will Brylcreem and Geritol.*
Which of course will put those players with a full head of hair at a noticeable disadvantage.
No he shouldn’t.
I used to feel the same way, but I’ve changed my opinion on the subject.
The rules of baseball were laid out for him.
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Don’t bet on baseball. He did. Doesn’t matter if he only bet on his own team to win, or only bet on other teams… he broke the rule.
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It’s illegal to alter a bat. He intentionally cheated. It doesn’t matter if science has proven that corked bats don’t really help. What matters is he intentionally broke a rule he KNEW would get him banned from baseball. He’s a cheater who broke the rules of baseball.
No. Not for me, anyway. It’s made me a lot more jaded about the sport.
Pro athletes generally aren’t the brightest people on earth, and Rose is hardly leading even that pack.
At this point, finding out that Rose might have used a corked bat is like finding out that Ted Bundy fudged a few numbers on his last tax return.
I’m with you…I detest the cheating in all sports I enjoy.
Corked bats don’t get you banned from baseball. At most, you get fined.
This is a non-issue. The betting on baseball is what rightly keeps Rose out of the Hall. The corked bats is like saying he’s a murderer, but should go to prison because he jaywalked.
They got Capone for less.
Considering that some of the HOF voters probably used corked bats themselves at one point or another, this will not be an issue.
Well, the main reason it won’t be an issue is that they’ll never have the opportunity to vote for him anyway.
Are there any basball players from about the 1800’s until lunch today who have not use corked bats or pine tar or steroids or HGH or doctored a ball…?
It is not just the corked bats. That is just another straw on the pile. No one has suggested that the bats are the reason that he should not get in the HOF. But this is just another item that damns Rose. There are lots of others.
As you note, some people will assume that a liar won’t make a vehement denial when caught. So the best thing a liar can do when caught is make a vehement denial.