Bag of Tricks
“It
ain’t cheating if you ain’t been caught.”
-Billy
Martin
Bygone
baseball by C. Philip Francis
When
Sammy Sosa was caught using a corked bat last June was he cheating or was it an
honest mistake?
No one really knows…except for Sammy who embarrassed himself as well as
the game and his country.
My guess, however, is that it was a simple error on his part.
Like it or not, however, cheating has been part of baseball since the
first ballplayer ever donned a uniform, or as some would call it – the tricks
of the trade.
Was
Sammy the first person to ever swing a corked bat?
Absolutely not.
Norm “Stormin’ Norman” Cash had 17 years in the big leagues, two
with the Chicago White Sox, and 15 with the Detroit Tigers in the 1950’s,
‘60’s, and ‘70’s never hit over .286 except for the year 1961 when he
won the batting title with an astounding .361!
He later admitted to using hollowed-out bats.
Is his .361 still in The Baseball
Encyclopedia in spite of his later confession?
You bet it is. And
although the Baseball Research Center at the University of Massachusetts-Lowell
says that corked bats “are probably more superstition…than it gives the
batter any benefits.”
Yet there certainly will be players who will use tampered bats in the
future when one asks how Cash can possibly hit almost 100 points over his
hitting average without that extra assistance.
Billy
Martin played ball with a motto, “It isn’t cheating if you don’t get
caught”, and not only has the bat occasionally altered so has the ball.
There are many other ways players and managers have fudged on the rules
to get that little edge on the opposition such as stealing signs, changing the
base lines, or the so many additional ways baseball people have used.
Leo Durocher has quoted to say that to help win a game he would even trip
his grandmother if she was rounding third on the way home.
John McGraw did almost that by grabbing the runner’s belt at third base
to slow him down.
After
the batter connected and was on his way to first base catcher Mike Kelly would
“accidentally” toss his mask a few feet up the first base line to
slow down or even trip the runner.
Connie Mack was not always the “paragon of virtue” that most people
believed him to be.
Not only was Mack a bench manager for half a century he was a catcher for
11 seasons in the late 1800’s.
When his team was playing at home and then responsible for supplying the
baseballs, Connie put some balls on ice overnight.
When it was time to take his spot behind the plate, the catcher would
take out one of the iced and soggy or mushy ball that the umpire put in place
for the other team.
The
Baltimore Orioles in the 1890’s that included such Hall of Fame players as
John McGraw, Dan Brouthers, Hughie Jennings, and Wee Willie Keeler were not the
best team, but certainly one of the rowdiest and dirtiest bunch of ballplayers
that took the field in the history of baseball.
Throwing equipment in front of the opponents, interfering with the
catcher on pop fouls, and holding or bumping base runners were only a few of
their questionable tactics.
Oriole
outfielders had one cute trick by “planting” a few extra baseballs in the
tall outfield grass so when the batter drove one over the outfielder’s head he
would suddenly and miraculous find the “ball” and fire it in that might keep
the runner on first base rather than third.
In one game the Oriole left fielder grabbed a ball out of the grass and
fired it back to second base at the same time the center-fielder was throwing
the actual batted ball into the infield.
With little hesitation the umpire called it a forfeit, and awarded the
game to the visiting team.
When
baseball declared the spitball to be illegal in 1920 only those pitchers who had
previously used the saliva ball were allowed to use the wet ball throughout
their remaining playing days.
The last of the spitballers was Burleigh Grimes who threw the very last
legal dew ball in 1934, but did pitchers forget or ignore the advantage of
loading up as they wound up?
Not at all, they just found new and clever ways to doctor the ball to
make it do odd things when it reached the batter.
Some pitchers began to use Vaseline, mud, soap, grease, saliva, tobacco
juice, baby oil, wax plus anything that might scuff the ball such as an emery
board or sandpaper.
Some
of more infamous hurlers who were charged with throwing the forbidden ball over
the years were Schoolboy Rowe, Johnny Allen, Lew Burdette, Jim Bunning, Gaylord
Perry, Preacher Roe, Joe Niekro, and Don Sutton to name only a few.
It is very difficult for the umpire to determine if a trick ball is
coming, and although the umpires came close to stripping Perry down to his
underwear no illegal substances were usually found.
In his book Me and the Spitter the Hall of Famer said, “I’d always have
grease in at least two places, in case the umpires would ask me to wipe off one.
I never wanted to be caught out there without anything.
It wouldn’t be professional.”
In
1982 when Perry was finally ejected for throwing a spitter, the only previous
pitcher to be tossed for the same offense was Nels Potter of the St. Louis
Browns who was chased in 1944 by umpire Cal Hubbard who later admitted, “It
was Potter’s defiance rather than any physical evidence.”
In 1987 the man in blue asked Niekro to empty his pockets because
of some suspicious pitches that were darting about, and with a “who me”
appearance on his face an emery board fell to the ground.
Joe was suspended for ten games for breaking the rules.
Rules
or no rules there will always be players who can find a way for that little
edge.