AN ANALYSIS OF CHEATING IN BASEBALL

An Analysis of Cheating in Baseball

Leighanne Virosco

Joel Baldomir

Marist College
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An Analysis of Cheating in Baseball

It has been said by the fans and the media that Baseball is America’s pastime. Over the

decades, many fans have enjoyed the subtleties of the game and cheered for their favorite teams

and players. However, unsurprisingly to many, another side to baseball occasionally appears

which involves unorthodox or even illegal means to gain an advantage. These advantages are

often referred to as cheating, and unfortunately have had a presence in baseball for over a

century. This paper examines aspects of the major cheating scandals that have occurred in

baseball over the past 100 years and their impact on players, management and the rules that

govern the game.

Significance of Review

This paper’s focus is to analyze the various cheating scandals that have occurred in

baseball over the past century, discuss the rationale behind the cheating, and review how

management and/or Major League Baseball (MLB) responded so as to pre-empt or mitigate such

cheating in the future. In examining cheating, there are four groups that need to be considered

since each group has different needs and long-term objectives. These four groups are defined as

follows: (1) players at both major and minor league levels, (2) the Major League Players

Association (i.e. players union), (3) individual teams and their management, and (4) Major

League Baseball (MLB). While groups 1 and 3 have needs that are relatively straightforward,

groups 2 and 4 require further description. The players union, group 2, was formed in 1966 and

exclusively represents players on the 40-man rosters of major league baseball teams. The goal

of the union is to represent their members interests as a whole, and not just the needs or specific

situation of any individual player. In a similar fashion, MLB is concerned with the overall sport

of baseball including the sport’s image in the eyes of government and the public. An interesting
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contradiction is that MLB is dedicated to achieving this over-arching objective even though it is

actually governed by the owners of the 30 MLB teams, and thus has often been in the interesting

position of disciplining one of its owners.

This paper’s outcome is to evaluate the reaction to different types of cheating by

management and/or Major League Baseball (MLB) and to review the responses and resulting

rules or guidelines to see if they have proven to be sufficient to pre-empt the various types of

cheating in the future.

Integration of Academic Concentrations

This study of the cheating scandals integrates a background in Athletic Training which is

used to explore the roots of cheating from a medical standpoint, as well as a concentration in

Management Studies which is utilized to examine the responses from the management of

individual teams as well as from MLB to cheating scandals.

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Literature Review

This literature review examines the research that has been published on the multiple

cheating scandals that have occurred over the last century in baseball. Also included is a review

of how management and MLB responded to cheating through fines, suspensions, or other rules

and guidelines.

The Louisville Grays’ Scandal of 1877

Findling (1976) described one of the first instances of bribery in baseball - four players

from the Louisville Grays accepted money in exchange for throwing games. The money was

provided by gamblers who would bet on the games to be thrown. The Louisville Gray’s

president, Charles Chase, received information informing him of gambling activity involving

members of his team. He began an investigation into the claim which resulted in 2 of the 4

players involved admitting to throwing several games in exchange for monetary compensation.

In October 1877, Chase asked for all players on the team to turn over telegrams; all but one

player complied with the request. The telegrams proved that the four players had thrown games.

The four players were later expelled from the club, and subsequently banned from professional

baseball for life.

Although the four players were unable to ever return to baseball, gambling and bribery

incidents continued to occur. Even though banning players from professional baseball for life

seemed like an appropriate punishment to discourage it from happening again, it could be argued

that MLB’s enforcement of these rules was haphazard. Unfortunately, gambling continued to be

linked to professional baseball, with other claims of external interference occasionally arising. It

was not until the 1919 World Series scandal and its aftermath that MLB acted more forcefully.

The 1919 World Series

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Linder (2010) explained how the Chicago White Sox players in 1919 were split into two

teams, with players being paid fractions of what they were actually worth to the club. Even by

being split into two teams, they were perhaps one of the best baseball teams of all time. The

team had a high degree of control over the players at the time due to baseball’s reserve clause,

which states that any player who accepted a contract was prohibited from playing on any other

professional baseball team. The franchise owner paid two of his most talented stars only $6,000

a year to keep costs down. Other cost saving measures included reducing the frequency of

uniform laundering, which birthed the nickname “Black Sox”. Linder (2010) explained that

owners used the reserve clause to keep salaries low to the point that most players were just

scraping by financially; thus, gamblers were able to find players on a plethora of teams looking

for extra cash.

Numerous articles have written about what unfolded during the 1919 World Series and

why the players participated in the scheme. Some authors concluded that the players took the

bribes just to get easy money, while others concluded the players took the money to get even

with the team owners who were not paying them what they felt they were worth.

After the White Sox lost the World Series, rumors circulated that there was something

going on around the players on the White Sox; Linder (2010) stated that “Charles Comiskey

tried to discourage talk of a fix, brought on by his team's dismal performance in the Series, by

issuing a statement to the press. Comiskey told reporters, “I believe my boys fought the battle of

the recent World Series on the level, as they have always done, and I would be the first to want

information to the contrary--if there be any. I would give $20,000 to anyone unearthing

information to that effect.’” All the while, Comiskey hired private investigators to look into the

financials of seven out of the eight players under suspicion of throwing the series.
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Linder (2010) went on to note that the rumors of a series fix went on until the fall of

1920, when the New York Giants pitcher Rube Benton told a grand jury that he saw a telegram,

sent in late September of 1919 from Sleepy Burns, that the Sox would lose the 1919 World

Series, and revealed that he learned that Gandil, Felsch, Williams, and Cicotte were some of the

players in on the fix. An investigation into the possibility of fixing the 1919 World Series began

in 1920; Cicotte and another teammate, “shoeless” Joe Jackson, admitted that a fix existed.

Subsequently, this case went to trial, with the eight players involved testifying. The jury found

the players not guilty, but the evidence of cheating was there. After the trial, the commissioner

of baseball released a statement, "Regardless of the verdict of juries, no player who throws a

ballgame, no player that undertakes or promises to throw a ballgame, no player that sits in

conference with a bunch of crooked players and gamblers where the ways and means of

throwing a game are discussed and does not promptly tell his club about it, will ever play

professional baseball." With that, the eight players were banned for life from professional

baseball. Linder (2010) goes on to say that despite some of the players best efforts to gain

reinstatement, none of the eight men ever played major league baseball again.

Asinof (1963) portrayed the eight members of the Chicago White Sox conspiring with

gamblers to intentionally throw the 1919 World Series. The book portrayed players full of

contempt over how little they were being paid, and showed Chick Gandil convincing a group of

White Sox Players that they would be able to earn more money by throwing the series than they

would ever make by winning it. Gandil was even able to convince the star pitcher, Eddie Cicotte,

to be a part of the scandal. Cicotte agreed due to owner Comiskey refusing him a promised

$10,000 bonus should he reach a goal of 30 wins for the season, Cicotte was nearing that
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milestone when Comiskey ordered him to benched for two weeks to “rest his arm before the

series”.

Drawing from the above-mentioned readings about the 1919 World Series, there is no

doubt that players on the White Sox were able to fix the Series. Although this World Series

happened over a century ago, the actions still have implications for players today. The

punishment of banishment from major league baseball for accepting bribes to affect the outcome

of a game remains as a harsh punishment. Due to this scandal, players and employees at any

MLB organization have to sign a document stating they will not place bets on any Minor or

Major League Baseball or Softball game. It should be noted that today, the motivation for

cheating of this form has been negated by the rather substantial minimum salary of a

professional baseball player on a team’s 40-man roster. As of 2019, the minimum salary for a

player on a team’s 40-man roster was $555,000. Naturally, more established players earn far

more than this amount.

Pete Rose Betting Scandal

Pachman (1990) was asked by MLB to investigate allegations that Pete Rose, the game’s

all-time hit leader and then current manager of the Cincinnati Reds, was betting on Major

League baseball games including games involving the Reds. Rose bet on approximately 52

Cincinnati Reds games in 1987, which is about a third of the games in the season if not more,

betting a minimum of $10,000 per game.

In August of 1989, Rose agreed to a lifetime ban from baseball with three key

provisions: 1) Major League Baseball would make no finding of fact regarding the gambling

allegations and cease its investigation; 2) Rose neither admitted or denied the charges; and 3)

Rose could apply for reinstatement after one year. Although Major League Baseball agreed to
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the no finding of fact provision, a statement was made the next day by the National League

president stating he thought that Rose definitely bet on baseball games.

Rose has since applied for reinstatement three times, once in September of 1997, again in

March of 2003, and once more in March of 2015. In all of these instances, his request was either

ignored or denied by the Commissioner of Major League Baseball. In 1991, Rose’s ban was

extended to the Baseball Hall of Fame when the twelve members of MLB’s the board of

directors voted unanimously to bar him from the ballot. In 2004, Rose released a book titled My

Prison Without Bars in which he admits that the accusations that he had bet on Reds games were

true.

Unlike prior gambling scandals, Pete Rose’s gambling cannot be associated with

financial gain. Rose’s baseball career spanned 26 years both as a player and manager. His career

earnings totaled $7.1 million, and he was among the highest paid team managers at the time of

his betting. Therefore, other motivations come into focus such as addiction or feeling the rush

one would get from still playing and stepping up to the plate to hit. Effectively, it seems that

Rose was substituting one rush for another.

MLB has been particularly definitive in banning Rose and then in denying him the

opportunity to enter baseball’s Hall of Fame – an honor he certainly deserves were it not for his

gambling. MLB’s main concern is that admitting Rose might taint the game by ultimately

overlooking gambling, and even worse - gambling on one’s own team (it is unclear if he did so

or not). There seems to be no reason for MLB to alter this policy; instead, the league and the

players union have made available a number of abuse/addition services players can tap into

should they need such assistance, and in that way avoid these types of problems spiraling out of

control.
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The Players Strike of 1994

Staudohaur (1997) described the player strike of 1994 through 1995 which lasted 232

days. The strike was the longest strike in professional sports at the time, and resulted in lost

income for players and owners. Fortunately, the game was able to somewhat bounce back in

1996 although many problems remained. Players felt that they were being short-changed in

many areas - mainly financially, and that they had little alternative to a strike. If the players had

continued to play through the season without coming to an agreement, the owners would have

been able use the prevailing collective bargaining agreement to declare an impasse and

implement proposals that best suited their financial interests. The timing of the players strike

was designed to inflict maximum damage on the owners, because at that point in the season most

players had received most of their pay. However, the team owners were able to avoid large

losses because they had already received 75% of their television income. The Players

Association (union) had anticipated a strike, so they retained a portion of each players licensing

revenues from the sale of merchandise to accumulate a strike fund of about $175 million,

meaning that each player with 4 plus years of experience would have ~$150,000 to ride out the

strike.

Fallout from the strike lasted for a number of years, although the 1995 season was the

most impacted with ballpark attendance down about 20 percent. Numerous fan protests occurred

that year as well, which indicated significant fan frustration with owners and players. Perhaps

the largest impact of the strike was the downfall of the Canadian team, the Montreal Expo’s who

were having a tremendous season. The shortened 1994 season (with no play-off games) forced

the Expo’s franchise to cut payroll and trade their star players. The franchise never recovered

and the team was ultimately moved out of Montreal eventually becoming the Washington
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Nationals. The strike did lead to some positive changes within the league; owners were no longer

able to reserve players, creating what we now know as free agency.

The Steroid Era

Bruno (2014) stated that “for as long as competition has existed, individuals have

attempted to gain a leg up on their adversaries. This is especially true in the sport of baseball,

which has seen a long history of such behavior… performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) have

been in the game for around fifty years. Of course, when most people refer to baseball's "Steroid

Era" they mean the period of time from the late 1980's until the mid-2000's, when anabolic

steroid use pervaded the sport.

Brennen (2014) went on to explain that there was a period of time where performance-

enhancing drugs were not illegal in baseball and were seen as an acceptable part of the game. In

2007, there was an investigation into the use of performance enhancing drugs in baseball, which

named 89 players who used them, and concluded that it was a pervasive practice throughout

baseball. Until this investigation, the use of performance-enhancing drugs in baseball was still a

cultural norm, and many claimed that all players benefited from the use of steroids. Also, growth

hormones were used to accelerate the healing process, which enabled players to shorten their

recovery time and potentially lengthen their careers.

The tail-end of the “steroid era” would appear to be the case surrounding Alex

Rodriguez, arguably one of the best short stop/third basemen in the game. Brennen (2014)

focuses on the media coverage he received for his alleged use of performance-enhancing drugs.

In 2014, CBS aired a story on performance-enhancing drugs in Major League Baseball that was

based on the testimony of an admitted drug dealer, referencing stolen documents purchased by

the MLB, and damaging stories spread by executives of the MLB. This program showcased the
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Baseball commissioner at the time, Bud Selig, saying that Rodriguez had to be punished because

his actions were beyond comprehension. Although Rodriguez had not failed a drug test in that

timeframe, MLB, based on recommendations from its investigators, imposed a full-season ban

from baseball, without pay, for his alleged use of performance enhancing drugs. It should be

noted that while performance-enhancing drugs were not illegal at the time of Rodriguez,

especially early in his career, these drugs were frowned upon by many people in the sport. From

this research it seems to be just an inference that Rodriguez was using PED’s, and that perhaps

his treatment by MLB was more of a message to players that anyone could be subject to

disciplinary action from using steroids or PED’s, even major stars.

The steroid era ultimately resulted in external pressure from fans and negative publicity

over drug use. Major League Baseball has since cleaned up its act by instituting its Joint Drug

Prevention and Treatment Program, but that hasn't stopped some players from using

performance enhancing drugs in violation of federal law and baseball policy. Over the past

decade baseball players have cheated, testified in front of Congress, lied to Congress, and been

tried for offenses related to their alleged use of performance enhancing drugs. The reality is that

some players will use any method to gain an advantage in the sport so that they can have a step

up on the other player. Other players may use performance-enhancing drugs to help rehabilitate

from injury or even extend their career in the hopes that they would not be caught.

Lardon (2008) discusses where the line between a therapeutic exemption and

performance enhancement begins when using steroids. When prescribing performance-

enhancing drugs, the physiological and psychotropic properties of each drug must be considered,

but also the individual characteristics of the sport and more importantly the individual biology of

each athlete must be considered as well. If performance-enhancing drugs are going to continue
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to be prescribed, the integrity of the practice of medicine as it relates to professional sports has

to be maintained, which means that all involved have to be more informed and must be directly

involved in the decision making about medication efficacy and appropriateness. To address who

should be the one drawing the line between therapy and enhancement, the world of sports is

calling for physicians who are experts in the field of psychopharmacology, psychiatry, and

athletics to make sure that prescriptions are being used for the correct reasons.

Kozman (2017) states “public and media attention to the issue [performance-enhancing

drugs] rose and fell depending on the circumstances surrounding it. Among the most notable of

these was the 2013 Baseball Hall of Fame voting, whereby the Baseball Writers’ Association of

America denied entry to prominent players tied to steroids—namely Barry Bonds and Roger

Clemens—in their first year of eligibility (to be inducted into the Hall of Fame for baseball, the

voting process is done by a select number of baseball writers). This decision is perhaps one of

the most pronounced statements baseball media had made against the use of steroids that had

plagued America’s national pastime for decades.” Due to the Hall of Fame being run by the

media, it is challenging to separate a player’s professional career from their media career.

DeIuliis (2012) researched the correlation between media coverage, government

legislation and Major League Baseball’s steroid policy. “MLB and the MLBPA’s (i.e. the

players union) being subject to antitrust laws would allow the government to directly regulate its

steroids policies, and associations have therefore taken action following legislative and negative

media coverage to protect their public images. Also, whether intended or not, the influence of

the media has repeatedly surfaced in both the outing of BALCO (i.e. a steroid scandal) and the

discovery of dozens of other players testing positive for steroids, and has caught the attention of

legislators, who have in turn passed laws inducing MLB to act. Although sports themselves can
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be a displacement activity for the negative effects of media exposure, teenagers may feel

increasing pressure to use anabolic steroids because it is the only way to become the major

leaguers they see in the media – whether or not it is for a positive test.”

Angell et al. (2012) described the use of performance enhancing and social drugs by

athletes as both an ethical and health concern. Despite the World Anti-Doping Agency

addressing these issues and publishing a list of banned substances and testing for them, there still

are many athletes who continue to use performance and image enhancing drugs. There is

growing evidence that the use of anabolic steroids such as growth hormone (testosterone) can

have a negative effect on multiple cardiovascular disease risk factors; a common side effect of

anabolic steroid use is the development of breast tissue.

Sánchez et al (2013) described athletes’ attitudes and beliefs towards banned substances

in sports, to help develop effective strategies to combat doping. The initial reasons athletes gave

for using banned substances were athletic success by improving their performance, financial

gain, decreasing their recovery time and preventing nutritional deficits, as well as the idea that

others were using them. Most elite athletes recognize that using performance-enhancing drugs is

cheating. However, many athletes criticize that the punishments given to those using

performance-enhancing drugs as either not severe enough or inappropriate. Instead, it would be

more effective to invest in educational programs to discourage the use of the banned substances,

as well as combining qualitative and quantitative measurements, while still using biomedical

testing of athletes.

Dimant (2015) discussed how performance-enhancing drugs are used in both amateur

and professional sports and have become a systemic threat in creating unfair advantages. In

professional sports, there are greater incentives involved when using performance-enhancing
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drugs. In order to ensure that sports are a clean and fair competition, there has to be more

complex testing, and the data collected should be made publicly available to use for more

extensive studies in the future.

Junger et al (2019) described how during the steroid era of Major League Baseball, there

were weak policies in place, strong monetary incentives, a lack of enforcement, and an element

of secrecy which created the perfect environment for non-compliance. Fortunately, MLB’s

response when facing the steroid crisis was to ultimately strengthen its compliance progam

which was adopted in the early 2000s. Since 2004, only 68 players have been suspended for

performance enhancing drugs while on a major league team. Only 5 of those players have tested

positive more than once, and only one player has been banned from Major League Baseball for

failing a third drug test.

Nathan (2011) researched the effects of performance-enhancing drugs on home-runs,

such as if the increased muscle mass results in higher bat speeds and consequently a higher

velocity of the batted-ball. A higher ball velocity resulted in a longer fly ball and therefore

higher homerun rates. There is evidence to suggest that there is a three mile per hour increase in

the velocity of the ball which leads to a 4.3% increase in the distance the ball is hit and therefore

increased the homerun probability by ~30%. The research also concluded that a 10 percent

increase in muscle mass can in fact lead to a large increase in the probability of hitting a

homerun.

Corked Bats and Juiced Balls

Russel (2011) discussed Chicago Cubs centerfielder Sammy Sosa being ejected from the

first inning of a game for using a corked ball. The bat, upon impact with the ball, shattered and

the umpire who picked up the fragments discovered that the bat had been hollowed out and filled
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with cork. Sammy’s argument was that it was a mistake; he had accidentally grabbed one of his

batting practice bats and used it by mistake.

Russel (2011) explained there is an advantage to using a corked bat in baseball since a

corked bat has less mas and thus can achieve a higher bat speed. However, things are not quite

that clear-cut since lowering the mass of the bat means a less effective collision between the bat

and the ball. Overall there is an advantage to using a corked bat for contacting the ball, since a

player can wait a few milliseconds longer before committing to a swing. This means the player

can watch the ball for a few more feet before swinging, and thus potentially help a player contact

the ball more often. Therefore, a player may be able to make more frequent contact with the ball,

but it does not appear that corked ball will help hit more homeruns. However, baseball players

are a very superstitious group, so the key factor to a corked bat may be that if a player thinks it

will make a difference in the game than it very well may make a difference in the game. The

effect of the corked bat may be more psychological and not a result of increased performance

due to the corking.

Nathan et al. (2011) looked into the efficacy of corked bats, juiced (i.e. more “livelier”)

balls and humidors on baseball. Their study showed that corked bats do not result in a longer

home run, but the study was silent about whether home runs would be hit more often with a

corked bat. Juiced baseballs were something that attracted widespread attention during the early

part of the 2000 Major League Baseball season. During April and May of that year home runs

were hit at a rate higher than the rate over the same period of time in the previous years. The

principal testing done by this group could not find any evidence that the baseballs used at the

time were livelier than those of an earlier time, although the researchers cautioned that their

result only applied to the small sample of balls tested.

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Humidors were used as a way to test for the decrease in offensive statistics at Denver’s

Coors Field since 2002, where the air density in Denver is 80% of air at sea level. Their study

concluded that it is plausible for a humidor to account for the decrease in offensive statistics at

Coors Field since 2002. Nathan et al. (2011) concluded that it is plausible for a humidor to

account for the decrease in offensive statistics at Coors Field since 2002. The study

demonstrated that storing balls in a humidor at 50% relative humidity and at 35 degrees

Fahrenheit can lead to a reduction in homeruns.

Electronic Cheating

Manfred (2020) described a former Houston Astro’s player publicly alleging in 2019 that

the Astro’s had engaged in sign-stealing methods in 2017 that violated MLB’s rules. MLB

shortly initiated an investigation which covered from 2016 until the 2019 post-season. Starting

with rules violated during 2017, Astro’s employees used the camera in center field to decode the

opposing teams’ sign sequence. Once decoded, a player in the video review room would relay

the information to the dugout, and someone in the dugout would relay the information to the

runner on second who would relay it to the person up at bat. On some occasions, the sign

information was sent by text message to be received on the smart watch of a staff member on the

bench or in some cases to a phone stored nearby. The players then instigated using sounds to

better relay the information directly to the batter.

Following the investigation, MLB disciplined the Houston Astro’s by having them forfeit

their first and second round draft picks in the 2020 and 2021 First-Year Player Drafts and

applying a fine of $5,000,000 which is the highest allowable under the Major League

Constitution. Additionally, Jeff Luhnow, the general manager, was suspended without pay from

January 13th, 2020 until the completion of the 2020 world series; the team’s manager, A.J.
AN ANALYSIS OF CHEATING IN BASEBALL 17

Hinch, was suspended without pay beginning on January 13th, 2020 and ending following the

World Series; and Brandon Taubman, the assistant general manager, was deemed ineligible to

perform services on behalf of any Major League Club through the day following the 2020 World

Series.

In another sign-stealing scandal, Manfred (2020) disciplined the Boston Red Sox in April

of 2020 for electronic sign-stealing, stating improper usage of the video replay room. Manfred

found that during the 2018 regular season, J.T. Watkins, the Red Sox video replay system

operator utilized the game feeds in the replay room, in violation of MLB regulations, to steal

sign sequence information which he relayed to the players using a code that he had provided to

players prior to the game. Unlike the Astro’s conduct, in which players communicated to the

batter from the dugout in real time, Watkin’s conduct was far more limited in scope and impact.

The information only proved relevant when the Red Sox had a runner on second base, which

was only 19.7% of the plate appearances in 2018. Manfred found that then-Manager Alex Cora,

the Red Sox coaching staff, the Red Sox front office, or most of the players on the 2018 Red Sox

knew or should have known that Watkins was passing along to the players the information that

he had learned. Communication of the violations was isolated to Watkin’s and a limited number

of Red Sox players. Based on this information, Manfred issued the following disciplinary action:

1) Watkins was suspended for the 2020 regular and post-season, and will be prohibited from

serving as the replay room operator during any game for the 2021 regular or post-season; 2) The

Red Sox are to forfeit their second-round selection in the 2020 First-Year Player Draft; 3) Alex

Cora will be suspended through the conclusion of the 2020 post-season for his conduct as the

bench coach of the Houston Astros in 2017. There was no additional disciple on Cora as a result

of the conduct of Watkins due to Manfred believing that Cora was unaware of the scheme.
AN ANALYSIS OF CHEATING IN BASEBALL 18

Manfred however notes that Cora clearly did not effectively communicate to the Red Sox

players the sign-stealing rules that were in place for the 2018 season.

Electronic cheating is something new to baseball, but it isn’t something to be taken

lightly. With technology growing at an exponential rate there’s no telling where the demarcation

between baseball and legitimate use of technology could be in ten years. It’s important with

scandals such as these to make stricter policy to enforce the rules, and make sure other teams do

not follow in their footsteps.

Repeating History

Many of the scandals discussed in this paper were repeated schemes or had their roots in

prior scandals. Some blame has to lie with the MLB and team management in not educating

players or managers about the rules in place. The information provided in this paper should be

used to continue to educate both team management and the players on the rules concerning

cheating and the consequences that occur when a scandal does occur. It is important to learn

from prior mistakes and move on from there, not continue to recreate them.
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Conclusion

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the many cheating scandals that have occurred

over time in Major League Baseball, review the roots behind the scandals, and discuss how MLB

has addressed the scandals with new rules or procedures. Overall, it is clear that rules in Major

League Baseball are generally followed when the rules are clear, well communicated, and when

strict enforcement of well-defined punishments are apparent to the players. Recognizing that

players make mistakes and/or sometimes need help for a variety of addictions or other personal

problems has also helped the sport prevent scandals when there was no apparent malice (many

players have self-reported issues and sought treatment thus avoiding public scrutiny). Another

key factor in reducing scandals in baseball has been the professionalization of the sport. High
AN ANALYSIS OF CHEATING IN BASEBALL 20

minimum wages have enabled players at the major-league level to focus entirely on training, and

baseball activities, avoiding the financial pressures that were felt many years ago.

When continuing to research the roots of scandals in professional baseball, emphasis

should be placed on gaining a better understanding of how the commissioner responded to

similar situations in prior scandals. Areas that may need further research are the Louisville

Gray’s Scandal and the World Series of 1919. While both of these scandals happened over a

century ago, there are very few scholarly sources to use when researching these events and how

they were handled.

Additional research should be done on the use of performance-enhancing drugs for

psychological disorders or if there are medications that can be used as an alternate without

having the same physiological effects on the body. There should also be additional research into

why profession athletes cheat besides the monetary gain that may come with the notoriety, as

this may influence the policies and procedures that Major League Baseball puts into place.

Finally, MLB will need to be alert to the use of new technologies to cheat – such as the

use of a high-resolution center-field camera by the Houston Astro’s. Technology developments

are likely to continue to blur the line between cheating and acceptable behavior, especially in

people seeking a competitive advantage.

Application

The information portrayed in this paper should be used within Major League Baseball to

educate players and team management so as to deter future cheating. It’s important that both

groups are able to understand the severity of their actions and that MLB is willing to pronounce

significant punishments for those that break their cheating rules. The information could

influence Major League Baseball’s commissioner to create a more uniform policies for
 AN ANALYSIS OF CHEATING IN BASEBALL 21

subsequent instances of electronic cheating, that are likely to be uncovered as technology’s use

in baseball continues to progress.

Reflections

Since December, I have been working in professional baseball with the New York

Yankees and watched first-hand how Major League Baseball handled the Houston Astro’s

electronic sign stealing scandal. I was disappointed with how the MLB chose to handle the

situation and not disciple any of the individual players involved. Due to this scandal and my

passion for baseball, I decided that I wanted to better understand the decisions that Major League

Baseball has made in the past regarding scandals.

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