According to Selena Roberts' new book,(http://bit.ly/llcyQ) Alex Rodriguez reportedly engaged in a pitch tipping scheme with other players while on the Rangers.
Supposedly, Rodriguez would signal the pitch type and location to the hitter during a game that was no longer in doubt. In return, the hitter, from his place in the field, would do the same for Rodriguez.
As is usually the case in such things, nobody knows the truth except Rodriguez and perhaps a few compatriots. I don't know Rodriguez, or Roberts. I do know that Roberts was eager to convict the defendants in the Duke rape case, and did not apologize when they were freed, and Rodriguez, based on everything I've heard and read about him, seems capable of such a thing.
Of course, if you're one of Rodriguez' teammates, especially a pitcher who may have seen their ERA inflate because the hitter knew what was coming, you're going to be upset about this. And if you're a fan, who paid your hard earned American cash on the presumption that both teams were trying as hard as they could, you're not going to be very happy about this.
Is this really a big deal? Supposed cases of pitch tipping, sometimes for competitive advantage, sometimes not, have occurred before. Rangers pitchers didn't exactly cover themselves in glory when the hitters didn't know what was coming, so they don't have too much to complain about. If the game was truly out of reach, and the score was 10-3 instead of 10-1, what's the harm, right?
I'm not buying it. The fulcrum of sport is objectivity-I'm trying my hardest to beat you, and you're trying your hardest to beat me. Anything that puts that into question-from an NBA player letting a defender glide past in a blowout, to a pitcher grooving one to an aging slugger-is bad for the game.
I agree with you100%. They don't call it good "sportsmanship" for nothing. Honesty is part of that and fair play is the rest.
ReplyDeleteWon't somebody PLEASE think of the children? I've always wanted to use that quote...
ReplyDeleteSeriously, though, as a mom of young kids, I think cheaters should be found out and pubically shamed. If we allow cheating under certain cirumstances (well, they were going to lose the game anyway so the outcome is the same...), our kids will learn that the concepts of honesty and integrity are flexible and open to interpretation. What's the difference between that and copying a friend's homework when the assignment was easy (I COULD have done it myself, I just didn't have the time, so what's the difference?).
Bad for the game of baseball, bad for the game of life. I think sports function in some kids' worlds (maybe even some grown-ups' worlds) as a microcosm of real life.
I really just don't understand the purpose of cheating. It reminds me of all the plagiarism controversy online recently-- how can you feel good about a victory or accomplishment that isn't really yours?
ReplyDeleteI do have a tiny bit of sympathy for ARod, and it extends to this-when he signed his contract with Texas, it was for an enormous amount of money-far and away the largest in baseball history. Not a single one of us, offered the kind of money he was to do our life's work, would turn it down.
ReplyDeleteBaseball is an enormously hard job. As is often observed, if you fail six out of ten times as a hitter, you're the best who ever lived. There are younger people constantly nipping at your heels, who want your job. The minute your performance slips a little bit, you're gone-and most of the time, you don't know how to do anything else.
So I can understand the motivation, the temptation, to cheat. I don't condone it, but I can see why you might think about it, given the pressure he was under. I wouldn't do it, but I can see why he might have.
I can understand the temptation to commit adultery, too-I'm a guy, after all-but I just don't do it.
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