Our friends at The Hardball Times had a fascinating piece today on baseball ethics, recounting some famous ethical transgressions and are starting a project to rank them. The article is here.
We have written about fantasy ethics quite a few times in this site, especially last year when I was writing at The Hardball Times. In the article above our pals at THT discuss a fascinating class where students at Carleton College were asked to rank 133 different baseball transgressions. Thankfully THT has its own version of the project which is here.
Of course, I jumped at the chance to take a stab at it and strongly urge anyone else to do the same. At a minimum, just reading the alleged ethical transgressions is not only a good study of baseball history but is amusing as well.
Here are some of the interesting comparisons:
1. Mark McGwire’s evasive testimony vs. Sal Maglie’s headhunting. In my mind McGwire’s actions are “less ethical” as the comparison asks. In my view his testimony was criminal and did not tell the whole truth. Maglie’s actions are not criminal.
2. Pine Tar vs. Lenny Randle trying to blow a bunt foul. I found this one amusing, and if you have ever seen the Lenny Randle video I think it is clear that it was done to be funny as he knew that even if he succeeded it would not make the ball a foul ball. I am trying to set up an interview with Lenny so I will ask him myself. Of course, Randle’s other transgression with Frank Lucchesi is far more problematic.
3. The Spitball vs. Gold Chains-This one pits the spitballers against Billy Martin specifically complaining about Oil Can Boyd’s gold chains. The spitballers lose this battle. But what I can’t comprehend is why THT didn’t mention Dazzy Vance (who is my favorite pitcher aside from Satchel Paige in baseball history) who used to shred his sleeve so that when he pitched the shreds would fly out and hide the ball.
4. Drunks vs. Half Efforts-Here we have a comparison of drunk players versus the 30-3 pasting of the Orioles by the Rangers, where Ron Washington told his third base coach not to send anyone home unless they could score easily. Drunken players are far worse IMO. My favorite drunk player story is when Paul Waner rounded second base and ran into the bullpen, sliding into the home plate in the bullpen because he thought it was the actual home plate. That, my friends, is a drunk.
It is definitely a fun exercise and I urge everyone to give it a try. If you do feel free to email me or post your results as comments.
3 responses so far ↓
1 Doug Hopping // Aug 7, 2008 at 9:50 am
I find ethics exercises particularly interesting, especially in the context of a baseball game, where consequences range from playful questioning of rules to killing an umpire with a bat. One instance that I’ve always found of particular interest is McGwire’s grand jury testimony. For all the fallout he has received for his testimony, I think his withholding was a much more defensible response than those of his peers who either lied (Palmeiro), accused the entirety of the sport (Canseco), or pretended to no longer speak English (Sosa). I feel the public’s indictment of McGwire was not because his actions were more reprehensible than those of his peers, but because he was the one of whom we had the highest expectations. He was a national hero who had saved the sport after the strike and as baseball fans we were much more heavily invested in the sanctity of his accomplishments than we were in those of the other men on the stand. It upsets me to see the way he is treated, when other PED users, with lesser accomplishments have been much more readily forgiven for their transgressions (especially active players) . While other players have since come out and admitted to PED use, they now do so with the security of being simply a small part of what most of us now perceive as a much broader problem. In March of 2005, that wasn’t the case, and it would have taken much more courage and far greater strength of character to admit to such accusations than it does today. I find McGwire’s refusal to lie (under oath, I might add) to be a much more ethical response to his situation than the responses of his peers both on the stand with him, and those accused at later times. When looking at this situation from a more analytical bent, befitting a fantasy general, it is easier to look at his actions more favorably, than it is when we let media influence and public opinion sway our ability to judge the situation. In a situation where no one else has managed to live up to our expectations of the guilty, why should McGwire wear the mantle of having most failed them.
2 BallparkBob // Aug 8, 2008 at 12:02 am
Shortly after the incident that saw Lenny Randle try to blow the ball foul, I was coaching in a youth baseball game and one of our players did the same thing on a bunt that was right on the foul line. The umpire threatened to throw the kid out of the game. I never understood why? I thought what Randle did was ingenious and the youth baseball player was the smartest player I ever coached.
3 Brian Joura // Aug 8, 2008 at 8:27 am
I agree this was interesting but we won’t be able to put a lot of faith into the results because of the way the questions are asked.
They give a paragraph explanation of each side and then ask you to vote which one is less ethical. But in giving the choices, they sum up each paragraph into a phrase.
One paragraph was about how Andre Thornton stopped using a corked bat because if the Lord wanted him to hit 30 HRs, he would, even without a corked bat.
But when asked directly which one was less ethical, the paragraph was distilled into the phrase “The Lord”.
There’s a lot of people out there who aren’t going to vote for “The Lord” as less ethical.
You may think that’s nitpicking but any professional will tell you that using neutral phrases is key to getting useful information out of surveys.
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