Baseball

The game of baseball was first referred to as “America's pastime” in 1856, and from the beginning, deceit has played a central role in entirely legal baseball plays envisioned by the founders of the game. For example, at least once per season, a major league player will fall victim to the hidden ball trick. Even more often, a player will be caught too far from the bag, and be picked off by an observant pitcher. Pitchers, catchers, coaches, and batters have even created extremely complex series of signs in order to deceive opposing teams from being aware of their upcoming strategies. All of these elements of deceit serve to aid teams in legal ways throughout a game.

Not all lying and deceit, however, is as honorable. Consider the long-winded name of an American Studies course once offered at Carleton College: “An inside look at fighting, cheating, corking, scuffing, sign-stealing, drinking, race-baiting, name-calling, spitting, law-breaking, gambling, spiking, bug-hiding, doping, tomato-dropping, game-fixing, arrow-shooting, grooving, spying, lying, head-hunting, water-logging, freezing, sand-dumping, ridge-building, tacking, greasing, superball-stuffing, skull-smashing, head-pounding, potato-carving, bribing, lemon-tossing, field-burning, filing and other everyday occurrences in our nation's beloved past-time: A historical analysis of ethics and ethical decision-making in Major League Baseball.”

This list provides only a sampling of the ethically questionable occurrences within baseball that could be labeled as either lying or deception. Baseball has seen more than its fair share of rule stretching by players, managers, and owners, including George Brett's passion for pine tar, Albert Belle's cork, John McGraw's belt grab, Leo Durocher's strategically placed bug, Barry Bonds' steroids, Preacher Roe's spitball, Danny Almonte's birth certificate, Pete Rose's gambling, and the Black Sox throwing games. The following examples focus on a few of the most memorable bouts of lying and deceit in the history of American professional baseball.