The Levels of Cheat and the Cardinal Sin

Over the past week or so there have been many discussions about cheating in sports, A-Rod and steroids have been at the forefront, but people have been bringing up everything from doctoring the baseball, to the Basketball player who takes a dive trying to sell a foul call.

Pete Rose has also chimed in on the steroid controversy, questioning why is he banned for life and not eligible for the Hall of Fame, while known juicers are still in the league and eligible for the sports greatest honor, he concludes by saying that if he had the opportunity he would still vote for guys like Bonds and Clemens to be in the Hall.

First let's clarify that there are without question different grades to cheating, just as one can tell a "white" lie. When an outfielder short-hops a line drive and then lifts his glove trying to get an out called, he is by definition cheating, if we would keep all players who tried selling a call to a referee out of the Halls of Fame, Cooperstown would just be a small city in central New York State where one can visit The Farmers' Museum.

With that being said how can we differentiate between Barry Bonds steroid use, Reggie Millers famous flops and players such as Graig Nettles or Albert Belle putting super balls or cork in their bats.

The way to separate them, would be to look to what extent the offender went to break the rule. When Whitey Ford used his wedding ring or had his catcher, Elston Howard, use the buckle of his shin guards to scuff the baseball, he wasn't bringing anything extra to the mound. These type of cheats would be like "white" cheats, when we hear about them we smile or maybe even chuckle a bit at the creativity of the offender. It's a completely different story when a player goes out of his way to get his hands on illegal substances that are not just illegal in sports, but are banned in this country, you can't even get a prescription for some of the steroids ball players have been known to use.

There is another point to consider, and this deals exclusively with the spitball. The use of the spitball was not banned until 1920, and when it was banned the rule was grandfathered in, 17 pitchers were allowed to keep using it until they retired, Burleigh Grimes was the last legal spitballer when he retired in 1934. If Baseball was willing to allow these pitchers to keep using the spitball, we can hardly compare it to the use of steroids.

And then we come to Pete Rose and betting on Baseball. The one thing a sport cannot overcome, is the suspicion that the game is in some way fixed. Baseball nearly shut down when the story broke that the Blacksox had thrown the 1919 World Series. If there is even a doubt that a player is intentionally trying to negatively affect his team, or that an official has some rooting interest, the game may as well close shop and go home because no one is interested. Sport is about the live drama unfolding before our eyes, where no one knows how it will all end, almost like the a high drama court case. If there is any questioning the "realness" of the game, the sport is done.

Pete Rose bet on the game with illegal bookies, even if he only bet on his team to win, there are two major problems that can arise, one is that he falls to far behind and they force him to throw a game too make up his losses to them. The second problem is that as a manager he can overuse a pitcher or burn out the bullpen ,which would not be in the long term interest of the team, but can help him win this game, if you had ten grand riding on it what would you do. It would also be hard to believe he never bet on his team to lose, it's just to tempting as a manger where you can quite easily decide to give some of your starters the day off.

Putting the integrity of the game on the line is sports cardinal sin, for anyone to jeopardize the sport to such an extent, a lifetime ban is the only just punishment. Pete Rose violated the sport he loves in the worst possible way, consequently he does not belong in it's Hall of Fame.