Foxsports top 10 cheaters in baseball

[CanadianKid]

This showed up on my homepage. Thought it would be interesting to see if anyone has any other incidents to add.


http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/6091988?FSO1&ATT=HCP&GT1=8705

[hubkittel]

i think it's ridiculus to consider bonds' alledged ped usage worse than the black soxs throwing a world series. :confused: and where's hal chase?

[Skin & Bones]

This was an obvious attempt to slam Barry Bonds, let's be realistic here.

He left off Canseco ( a heavy drug abuser, who used long before Bonds did), and put Sosa and Belle's corked bat usage over Mcgwire, Giambi, Sheffield, etc, steroids usage. He also left off Mike Schmidt, Roger Hornsby, Tom House, Whitey Ford, and other admitted cheaters.

And the Blacksox not number 1 ? This is a first.

[dgarza]

Brett was cheating? Somebody probably should have told him.

Alex Rodriguez could have made the list.

[Ytown Tribe fan]

Nice Op-Ed piece. Inaccurate, but I expect that from Fox.

They changed the rule after Brett, so some good came out of that soap opera. From then on, if a manager thought a player had too much pine tar on his bat, he had to challenge it BEFORE the player got up to the plate.

Yeah, Hal Chase, the most vile creature in baseball history, didn't make list; Barry is worse than the 1919 Black Sox scandal.

Good job, Fox. Mission Accomplished.

[Skin & Bones]

Brett was cheating? Somebody probably should have told him.

Alex Rodriguez could have made the list.

Arod for what ? That slap ?

[FatAngel]

On one of those lists I read about the Bossard family, very "innovative" groundskeepers for the White Sox in two generations.
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=cheaters/050810

[hubkittel]

what about jim devlin and the 1877 louisville grays? did the guy who wrote this article even bother to do any research? all the guys tied to hal chase, like heinie zimmerman, benny kauff, etc should have been mentioned. jimmy o'connell, cozy dolan, and dutch leonard were all accussed of fixing games in the 1920's. all of these guys were bigger cheaters than george brett for gosh sakes.

[Skin & Bones]

what about jim devlin and the 1877 louisville grays? did the guy who wrote this article even bother to do any research? all the guys tied to hal chase, like heinie zimmerman, benny kauff, etc should have been mentioned. jimmy o'connell, cozy dolan, and dutch leonard were all accussed of fixing games in the 1920's. all of these guys were bigger cheaters than george brett for gosh sakes.

Good points. And yes, I doubt any serious reseach was done when writing this article.

[Skin & Bones]

Pete Rose should also be mentioned. Aside from Gambling on the Game, he allegedly corked his bat, admitted to using Greenies, and had close friends/fellow Gym rats thrown in jail for using and distributing anabolic steroids.

[Old Sweater]

I wish they would list all the players that have or tried to steal signs, all pitchers move to 1st (esp. leftys) when the rule states your not to have intent to fool the base runner. All outfielders and infielders that dek the runner on a hit ball. Catchers that throw dirt on a hitters foot and move the other way. All catchers that frame the ball to fool the Ump. Every baserunner who slides outside of the basepath at 2nd to break up a DP.

C'mon now, cheating has been and always will be part of baseball.

"I've cheated, or someone on my team has cheated, in almost every single game I've been in."......Rogers Hornsby

[hubkittel]

mcgraw's baltimore orioles should be very high on that list.

[Old Sweater]

mcgraw's baltimore orioles should be very high on that list.

All teams from 1875 to 1900 should have a fair ranking on that list.

[Skin & Bones]

If Belle and Sosa got mentioned for corkedbat usage, so should Norm Cash, who credited his entire 1961 season to that bat. And In Bill James New Historical Baseball Abstract, he describes Ruth as a user of a corked bat, and also goes on to mention how he believed he was able to bend the rules because of who he was.

[Chisox73]

Anyone remember around 1980 or so when the Seattle Mariners grouns crew extended the batters box a few inches toward the mound when Oakalnd came to the Kingdome?

I want to say it was Rick Langford who was pitching that night and the Mariners wanted to get to his curve before it fell off the table.

After a couple of innings,A's skipper Billy Martin noticed something funny was going on,and saw that the batters box was not right,so they had the Seattle grounds crew fix it right then and there.

[ESPNFan]

Yeah this guy is out to lunch. Brett's home run was ultimately allowed on appeal and the rule changed to reflect the difference between pine tar on the bat and altering the bat to enhance its performance.

[Brian McKenna]

Dick Higham, Hal Chase and John McGraw should sit atop any list.

[EvanAparra]

Someone needs to remove the 'Expert' title next to Kevin Hench's name.

[Brian McKenna]

what about jim devlin and the 1877 louisville grays? did the guy who wrote this article even bother to do any research? all the guys tied to hal chase, like heinie zimmerman, benny kauff, etc should have been mentioned. jimmy o'connell, cozy dolan, and dutch leonard were all accussed of fixing games in the 1920's. all of these guys were bigger cheaters than george brett for gosh sakes.

Kauff didn't throw a game and O'Connell was just a dope.

Much of what is stated above actually happened in the 1910s not 1920s.

[Brian McKenna]

mcgraw's baltimore orioles should be very high on that list.

The old Orioles get all the hype because McGraw strummed the New York reporters for decades after the events of the 1890s. They were not the first to use questionable tactics nor were they the biggest offenders. The 1890s bred abusive play.

The Orioles are hailed today mostly because of McGraw's self-promotion with NY reporters. It took 100 years for Ned hanlon to be elected to the HOF because everyone bought McGraw's crap that he ran the team not Hanlon.

[hubkittel]

The old Orioles get all the hype because McGraw strummed the New York reporters for decades after the events of the 1890s. They were not the first to use questionable tactics nor were they the biggest offenders. The 1890s bred abusive play.

The Orioles are hailed today mostly because of McGraw's self-promotion with NY reporters. It took 100 years for Ned hanlon to be elected to the HOF because everyone bought McGraw's crap that he ran the team not Hanlon.

good point about hanlon. and it's true that they weren't even the best team of the decade-you'd have to go with the beaneaters on that one. but when people think about the 1890's and that style of play (which was not just abusive but also dishonest), they do tend to think of the orioles and mcgraw. if that's a result of mcgraw's self promotion, the man did one heck of a job.

i just think it's funny how the article that started this whole thread failed to mention the players of the 1890's, who would violate any on field rule they could get away with and played as dirty a style of ball as we've ever seen, and the players of the teens, who would throw a ballgame at the drop of a dollar. these things are much bigger forms of cheating and more important in the context of the history of the game than a few guys in the last twenty years or so getting caught corking a bat or scuffing a baseball. we're talking about two eras where cheating and dishonesty are imbedded in the soul of the game to such an extent that it took radical steps to eliminate it. but the writer wanted to talk about albert belle and joe niekro.

[Brian McKenna]

i just think it's funny how the article that started this whole thread failed to mention the players of the 1890's, who would violate any on field rule they could get away with and played as dirty a style of ball as we've ever seen, and the players of the teens, who would throw a ballgame at the drop of a dollar.


Heck of a time to have been an umpire!

[Brian McKenna]

these things are much bigger forms of cheating and more important in the context of the history of the game than a few guys in the last twenty years or so getting caught corking a bat or scuffing a baseball. we're talking about two eras where cheating and dishonesty are imbedded in the soul of the game to such an extent that it took radical steps to eliminate it. but the writer wanted to talk about albert belle and joe niekro.

This is typical of reporters and the media. Too lazy to do the research and too myopic to think past a google search.

Watching the Web Gems show last week and they started hyping their "10 Greatest Catches" of all time. I didn't even bother to watch the end of the show to see because I knew they would never even bother recognize many feats prior to 1980 since the video for the most part doesn't exist.

[west coast orange and black]

bkmckenna: I knew they would never even bother recognize many feats prior to 1980 since the video for the most part doesn't exist.

yeah, i totally agree.
many already don't bother if they can not tube the video.

[hubkittel]

it reminds me of espn's "who's number 1" where the answer is always the 1998yankees or derek jeter. :laugh they always have some guys at the end of the show talking about the list. it used to be bert sugar and some other old guy. it was easily the best part of the show. the two old guys would start talking about walter johnson or jim thorpe or some old boxer-ripping the list for its myopic focus on recent events. they had to get rid of them and replace them some young guys who don't know anybetter, who wouldn't make the network look so stupid.

[Captain Cold Nose]

it reminds me of espn's "who's number 1" where the answer is always the 1998yankees or derek jeter. :laugh they always have some guys at the end of the show talking about the list. it used to be bert sugar and some other old guy. it was easily the best part of the show. the two old guys would start talking about walter johnson or jim thorpe or some old boxer-ripping the list for its myopic focus on recent events. they had to get rid of them and replace them some young guys who don't know anybetter, who wouldn't make the network look so stupid.
Ah, Bert Sugar. Now there's a throwback.

[ESPNFan]

Ah, Bert Sugar. Now there's a throwback.

LOL now there is an understatement!
Bert Sugar is such a throwback that if nobody caught him he'd be ruled a fumble.