Third Base or… Your Cheatin’ Heart.

Letters to My Sons

Written by Michael Shannon

“You’re all a bunch of cheaters,”said the catcher on the Branch School nine after the team took a drubbing by the Oak Park elementary team

Nothing wrong with that, baseball is all about the cheat. If you listen on the radio the play-by-play use language all the time to describe how it’s done.

The “Deke” is the time honored attempt by defensive players to fake out a runner by hiding balls or faking throws to catch runners off guard. The old hidden ball trick works in the majors the same as it does on the sandlot.

Much like real life, baseball has rule governing almost every part of the game. Rules with punishments. Just like real life. Players and teams cheat or find a work around. Just like real life.

Some cheats are so ingrained in the game that they might as well be rules themselves.

“The baserunner at first has taken a walking lead, he’s cheating toward second. The pitcher looks over and steps off the rubber; the runner scurries back.” On the next pitch he scampered down to second. He got a good jump because the pitcher tipped the pitch by the way he moved the ball in his glove. The throw from the catcher is a heartbeat too late but the shortstop covering holds his glove heavy on the runner’s ankle in an attempt to get the runner’s foot to slide off the bag for an out.

Now at second, the runner tries to slyly see the catchers signs and tip the batter about the pitch with a hand sign. So unfair, right?

Luckily he’s quick of foot thats why he attempts the steal but, of course there’s an answer for that. The grounds keepers at the stadium will wet down the base path until it’s the consistency of glutinous oatmeal to slow him down. If it’s our team we compact the ground until it’s like something you’d see at a track meet.

In the sixties the LA Dodgers had a shortstop named Maury Wills who was so quick that he could shoplift a base whenver he felt like it. Other teams countered this by making sure the base paths were wet. Mud was the answer to speed. When the Dodgers played in the old Stick the base path was like a swamp. When they played at home it was like concrete.

Jackie Robinson steal home in the It was the first game of the 1955 World Series between the Dodgers and the Yankees. Trailing 4-6 at the top of the eighth inning with two outs, Jackie Robinson with a daring steal of home, beating Whitey Ford’s pitch to the plate. Years later catcher Yogi Berra still maintained Robinson was out. AP News

Pitchers who throw pitches that are on the lower part of strike zone are known as ground ball pitchers because the tendency is for the batter to hit the ball into the ground rather than in the air. If we wet the base path and let the infield grass grow long to slow the ball down we induce more double plays. Is that cheating? Nah, it’s baseball.

The grounds crews are very well paid and can, and do tailor individual parts of the field to compliment the defensive players. Good footing is essential to a top gloveman, He is not likely to want the infield dirt be too hard because his cleats can’t dig in as well as he’d like and not too soft for the same reason. A hard hit ball will stay true on good tamped dirt, meaning it won’t skid or take an errant hop. The premier infielder, the shortstop will ask the crew to set up the infield exactly as he wants it. It’s why you see infielders dragging their feet after a play to restore the surface so they don’t catch the next ground ball in the teeth.

Pitchers can lick their fingers before drying them off on their uniform to get a grip on the ball, but they can’t be in contact with the rubber when they do so.The rule is intended to prevent pitchers from wearing foreign substances on their hands. Or on their belts pants, hair, or inside their ball caps. You can file the edge of your belt buckle to cut the ball or the catcher can do it for you. No rings are allowed for the same reason. Sometimes the mere suggestion of these “cheats’ is enough to throw the hitter off. Today you can see, in the majors, the Chief Scrutinizer dressed in blue giving the pitcher the once over after every inning.

Watch the catcher move his glove into the strike zone after nearly every pitch. Let’s fool the umpire if we can, maybe get a free strike call. Watch the subtle attempt by te hitter to surreptitiously impede the view of the catcher on the throw down to second on a steal. Your catcher might accidentally let a fastball drill the umpire just to send a message that we don’t like your calls. He might use his strong arm to try and hose a base runner and perhaps buzz it by the batters ear in order to remind him to stay away from the plate. Pitchers do it from the opposite end in order to brush the hitter back and away from the dish. The batter tries to crowd the plate to shrink the strike zone and force the hurler to throw balls away. The hitter doesn’t mind getting hit now and then as you can see by watching his less than frantic attempts to get out of the way. Many times his gyrations actually cause contact, which is the purpose. A free walk counts just like a real one.

Pitchers hold the ball inside the glove in order to hide their grip on the ball so the hitter won’t know whats coming. Or perhaps he will jiggle it around, changing grips for the same reason. There are 28 players, 14 of them pitchers who watch every move of the opposing pitcher trying to see if he “Tips” his pitches. Does he shift his feet on the rubber, does he always throw from the same side of it. Every single twitch is scrutinized to the nth degree. Count the manager, coaches and the bat boy too.

The hitter has about 0.452 second to hit a 95mph fastball. Thats moving faster than the brain can think. Ever major league player can turn on a 95mph pitch if he knows its coming. Cheating is imperative. Anything to gain an advantage. Does the pitcher have a tell? A disguised camera in the outfield or inside the score board can help. Yes, thats been done. It likely cost the LA Dodgers the 2017 world series. The joke practically writes itself — the Astros cheated with trash cans (because they’re trash, duh). According to Major League Baseball investigators, the Astros used cameras in center field and other technology in order to steal opposing teams’ signs throughout the 2017 regular and postseason. They signaled their hitters by banging a trash can in the dugout a specific number of times to signal the pitch. Did the Boston Red Sox cheat in the 2018 World Series? According to Mookie Betts of the Dodgers, The Astros’ scheme was the most prevalent, thorough, and arguably the most advantageous in terms of real-time at-bats. When Betts was asked if he was aware that the 2018 Red Sox occasionally used live video to steal signs.“Yeah,” Betts said, “Everybody was.”

1919 White “Black” Sox, everyone knows that one. Big-time gambler Arnold Rothstein bribed a number of players to boot ground balls, deliberately strike out and for the Sox pitchers to throw hittable pitches at advantageous times. Charles Comiskey, the owner of the Chicago White Sox and a prominent Major League Baseball (MLB) player from 1882 to 1894, was widely resented by his players for his miserliness. As a player, Comiskey had taken part in the Players’ League labor rebellion in 1890 and long had a reputation for underpaying his players, even though they were one of the top teams in the league and had already won the 1917 World Series. Thats a form of cheating too.

“Chuck” Gandil, ringleader of the Black Sox. Former boilermaker. Boxer and thief, he was a tough guy.

Scowling is encouraged, some pitchers are famous for it. Bob Gibson, a hall of fame pitcher for the Saint Louis Cardinals was famous for it as was Trevor Hoffman of the Padres whose walk on song was the AC/DC’s heavy metal song “Hells Bells.” Randy Johnson scowl could make a batter wet his pants. Standing at 6″ 10″ on a mound 15″ high it looked like his 100 mph fastball was going right down the batters throat. Johnson was so good that he killed a flying Gull by hitting it as it crossed between the rubber and the plate. “Nothin but feathers.”

Big Don Drysdale of the Dodgers led the majors five times in hit batsmen. All designed to make the batter sit up and take notice. Fear keeps the batter on his heels where he can’t create much leverage when he swings, he needs to be on his toes to drive a pitch.

Randy Johnson comin’ at you at 102 mph. May 1997. AP Photo/ Nick Wass

A baseball bat is described in baseball rules as, “The bat shall be a smooth, round stick not more than 2.61 inches in diameter at the thickest part and not more than 42 inches in length. The bat shall be one piece of solid wood.” Solid wood means just that and nothing else. Can a batsman cheat? Sure he can, he simply gets a wood shop to drill out the center, replace the wood with cork or some other substance and plug the end so it looks normal. The theory is that the hitter can swing the bat fractionally faster in order to hit that 102 mph pitch. Would any player cheat by doing that? Sure you could just ask Chris Sabo, Craig Nettles, Albert Belle and even Babe Ruth who didn’t care what you thought. He did it because he wanted too. Nobody cared if he cheated. As Mark McGuire, a notorious drug cheater said, “Chicks dig the long ball.” He was right too, they do and so does everyone else. Next to a flawless double play its the most exciting thing in baseball and you are lucky if you get to see one by any of those monster hitters.

There was a groundskeeper way back in the day who workd for the old Orioles. He was considered a dirt and grass genius and the Baltimore team took full advantage of that. It was whats known today as the dead ball era. An entire nine innings might be payed with just a single ball. The ball in those early days had no rubber core and the string was wound much looser than today. The “Pearl” we see today was just a distant dream. Now pitchers could throw just as hard as they do today. A famous hurler once raced a train with his fastball.

Until 1911 the greatest slugger was Frank “Home run” Baker who hit two game winners in the series that year. Most teams played what is now called “Little Ball.” Infield hits, bunts and different ways to hit the ball was what you’d see during a game. That’s where guys like Tom Murphy the crafty Irishman came into play.

Tom Murphy tailored the field in Baltimore to the specifications of the Orioles. He tilted the foul lines, he made the area just in front of home especially hard for the famous “Baltimore Chop.” He solved drainage problems by making right field so low that the catcher could barely see the cap of the right fielder.

The team was led by the shortest major league player of all time, 5′ 4″ Wee Willie” Keeler. He was fast as lighting on the base paths and a superb bunter. Murphy “Leveled” the playing field just for him. Other teams watered the base path until it was a bog to stop him, hence home field advantage.

No one should be surprised, it’s the American way isn’t it? This is the land of the cheat sheet, the cheater five, two timing, the scam and the con and If you’re not lyin’ your dyin’, We cheat on our taxes, why you can think of dozens of ways we cheat, that’s why baseball is truly our game.

Michael Shannon is a writer and a fan. He lives in Arroyo Grande California.