2022 Baseball Hall of Fame - tracker

[abothebear]

What do y'all think about this... there are at least two kinds of cheating, cheating within the game, and cheating without (and brought within). Fixing games is taking cheating outside of the field of play and bringing it in. Fixing an at-bat for your buddy on the other team by telling him what pitch is coming, within the field of play. Performance-enhancing drugs like steroids are done outside the field of play and brought in. Doctoring a baseball, stealing signs, taking LSD (maybe), all within the field of play. If you can get away with it, more power to you. If you get caught, you get tossed. The Astros crossed a line by stealing signs outside the field of play (using video technology from outside) and bringing it in.

These two kinds are substantially different, and the consequences should be different. That doesn't mean one can't judge a within-the-game cheater, or a strong case can't be made against chronic ball-doctorers or the like, but I don't think those cases are well-argued when they equivocate one type of cheating with the other.