The great American game of baseball!! Home runs, triple plays, and the World Series, make viewing this sport a great pastime. Fans, over generations of time, have come to hold special individual memories of baseball. It’s sealed in their minds; baseball IS the greatest sport of all time. Remembering, all is in the eye of the beholder, can it be that baseball history can define itself by years of great team lineups, talented athletes, extravagant game plays and greatest cheaters???
Who would have thought that in all baseball has provided for its fans, a set of stats dedicated to cheaters would fit in? No one would think that there would be a way that great athletes would conjure up or develop ways to improve their stats, career or even their place in baseball history. It is proven, however, that Hall of Fame greats and record breakers in the field of ball playing would actually be at the head of such schemes–no matter the severity of the scheme. Cheaters have been recognized throughout this sport since almost at its beginnings.
The most notable offenders and cheating title holders would be: John McGraw, Gaylord Perry, Ty Cobb, Mike Scott, Ken Hrbeck, Joe Niekro, Pete Rose, and Albert Belle. Later, and to add some variety to this interesting topic, one of the many baseball scandals include the 1919 Chicago White Sox sellout.
John McGraw was a Hall of Fame great who had a reputation for holding base runners by their belt loops and would even go as far as blocking and tripping runners. He was not afraid to try this stunt with runners larger than his 155lb frame.
Gaylord Perry, Hall of Fame inductee, had the infamous “spitter” ball or “Vaseline ball”. While compiling his 314-265 record, this pitcher would stand on his mound and touch his sleeve or cap. At these times, he would “load up” his ball, or appear to “load up” his ball in order to psych out the batter at the plate, enhancing the hopes for a strikeout. Because of this naughty habit, this great athlete was one of the few pitchers in the sport to get reprimanded. In 1982 he was suspended from baseball for doctoring the ball.
Ty Cobb, or otherwise known as the “Georgia Peach”, was not a Hall of Famer, but held dozens of the league’s records. However, despite the records, the major reason that this athlete was able to steal bases on occasion without fail was because fielders would fear the wrath of his sharpened spikes. Cobb had a nasty habit of using his pointed spikes as weapons on the base paths.
Mike Scott, also a holder of dozens of major league statistics, had a habit of using emery boards not for the nails on his hands but to shave a little bit here and there on the ball. Altering the ball in this way allowed many of the hitters to be potential strikeout victims.
Kent Hrbek was a charismatic player who helped his team reach two World Series. In 1991, his charisma was not enough to save him when in a play, a member of the opposing team landed on his base. Lo and behold, Hrbek in an orchestrated maneuver he thought to be covert bumped the fellow off the base. He tagged the guy out. What Hrbek did not know, was that there were cameras running at certain angles poised to catch him in the act. Hrbek himself found out what it was like to be OUT!
Joe Niekro was no stranger to the emery board, ball-shaving fix. Even though Niekro claimed the emery board in his pocket was to file his fingernails so he could keep his knuckleball skills in check, it wasn’t until 1987 he was caught cheating. An umps’ eye caught an emery board flying out of Niekro’s pocket and Niekro got suspended for 10 days, no doubt giving the pitcher sufficient time to keep a neat set of nails.
Pete Rose was a gambler. At times in the world of sports, inside information has benefited players or fans alike. One small fact could swing a bet one way or another, but no one would think that a player would bet on his own team. It would not only be ethically incorrect, but a detrimental career move if caught. Hall of Fame inductee Pete Rose made such a career-crippling move by placing bets on the outcomes of his own teams’ games!
In the unholy name of baseball cheating, there was Albert Belle. He was known to have “his own kind” of special bat; one that could have been known to hold more cork than a million bottles of champagne. In 1994, Belle was suspended for seven games in an occurrence where Albert’s bat was confiscated by an umpire after suspicions of bat tampering were made known to him.
Last, but probably forever in the name of baseball, not least, it would only seem fair to mention one event that has come to be known as one of baseball’s greater scandals. Most times, individual team members could be blamed for tampering with this great sport. But for the sake of keeping any more skeletons from coming out of closets, it can be safe to discuss this topic: The 1919 Chicago White Sox Sellout. Imagine a crowd of fans that grow to the tune of around 43,000 strong. Fans driving from far and wide. Fans waiting to see their team rise to victory in The World Series. Hopes for the true fan gets crushed when it is discovered that eight players of one team were paid off to lose to the other team. Then insult adds to injury; it becomes clear that the event was due to a master mob plan. The eight players involved get suspended, and later are banned from baseball for life. The White Sox reputation suffers for many years to come.
With all that said, throughout baseball’s history of cheaters and scandal, there is only one phrase that can sum up the result of the intentions of those trying to reinvent the rules of baseball for personal gain and that phrase is – “Cheaters NEVER prosper.”
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You’re really good man. You’ve got excellent talent.
Nice work, you did pretty good.
Brilliant Willy, Just Brilliant =D
Yes. There have been a few "switch pitchers"
Greg Harris did Sept 28, 1995. He was the last guy to do this in the MLB.
I also remember hearing a story of a minor league pitcher who did this in a game.. against a switch hitter, and the two switched back and forth many times until the umpire had to intervene.
read the bottom of this page for a brief mention of the story:
http://www.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/mlb/news/mlb_news_story.jsp?article_id=mlb_20000303_holtzman_cols&team_id=mlb
I would say that 60 is a reasonable guess, but it might be a little lower than that. I used to play as a kid but i don't play much anymore and I was clocked in the low 60's last summer at a fan day thing. Of the 4 people I knew that were clocked i think the highest ws 67 with average being a little under 60.
Well, these days with all of exercise and weight training they do, many baseball players are strong and big ( taking away the notion that most baseball players aren't athletes ) since most baseball players are athletes anyway. They actually cut their hair to military style because having a full head of hair slows down a player some what. For a "cop attitude" baseball players are the only pro athletes who are allowed to police themselves whenever a fight happens and leave the dugout.
Very nice!!
woww that’s really relax and beatiful soung .good picture of jhony depp !
:O
:O
:O
how is this not a real photo?
First find how long the ball is in the air. Velocity X Distance (converted units of course)
Then multiply by the revolutions per minute and you will get revolutions.
Mainly just a unit conversion problem
don't let the easy one get away……. Barry Bonds
I want to add to Kyle's response. The answer is B. If uniforms are sold to fans, then they are final goods and will be included in GDP. However, since professional baseball players use uniforms as an input in supplying a match to spectators, then the cost of these uniforms is already included in ticket prices and will not be included in GDP.
the same as we do
All broadcasters have endless information in front of them and constantly given to them during the game. So they know what pitches a pitcher throws, as well their tendencies they have to throw certain pitches in certain situations. They know between what speeds their fastball is thrown as well as the rest of a pitcher's pitches. So then by looking at the speed of the pitch, and its movement, they can deduce what pitch was just thrown. Its not quite as easy as looking at what sign the catcher is putting down, since that camera angle isn't usually the one being shown when the signs are flashed.
Perfect.
amazing! Willy teach me how to paint like you!
hm i couldn’t tell the difference between photograph and painting comparing the final resault.
This is sick
It says that we (yes I am Black) did what we did what had always when done when Whites would not allow us to do something. We started our own version which was just as good (and in many cases better as N-e-g-r-o League All Star teams routinely beat MLB All Star teams in exhibitions) as what they had. Most people don't know this but the East-West Colored All Star Game played at the original Comiskey Park in 1933 actually outdrew the first ever MLB All Star Game which was played in the same stadium one week earlier. This shows that White America was beginning to realize the quality of baseball that was played in the N-e-g-r-o Leagues was just as high as (and arguably higher than) that played in MLB. This also made racist owners try even harder to keep us out of MLB.
Often, N-e-g-r-o League teams would get their names by placing the word "Black" in front of the name of the local MLB or MiLB team, i.e. New York Black Yankees, Chattanooga Black Lookouts, Atlanta Black Crackers ("Crackers" was the name of the first professional team in Atlanta, a reference to cracking home runs), Birmingham Black Barons (who at one time counted Satchel Paige and Willie Mays among their players and were owned by Abe Saperstein, the same man who founded and owned the Harlem Globetrotters), Washington Black Senators, Jacksonville Black Caps (Jacksonville's MiBL team was the Red Caps) Shreveport Black Captains, New Orleans Black Pelicans, Little Rock Black Travelers,etc. The Kansas City Royals name is a tribute to the most famous N-e-g-r-o League team of them all, the Kansas City Monarchs.
When the MLB and MiLB teams were on road trips, the N-e-g-r-o League teams would often play in their stadiums and give the MLB team owner a portion of the receipts. This was also true for some MiLB teams. For example, when the Birmingham Barons were on a road trip, the Birmingham Black Barons would play at Rickwood Field. The N-e-g-r-o League teams were, however, required to use the MLB or MiLB teams announcers who were often just as racist as the owners. When the Barons played at Rickwood Field there was one section of the right field bleachers that was designated as "The Colored Section" and whenever a player be it a member of the Barons or the opposing team would hit a home run into that section the announcer would say the player hit it into "The Coal Bin." The bleacher designations were the exact reverse for the Black Barons' games, with one difference: the one section of the bleachers had no denigrating designation.
In short, the N-e-g-r-o Leagues showed that we could do anything that Whites could do and could do it just as well, if not better in some cases. The N-e-g-r-o Leagues endured until 1962 when they finally closed down shop for good because they had served their purpose, which was to give us a place to play professional baseball. When Pumpsie Green debuted with the Red Sox in 1959, it meant that every team in MLB had integrated.
Before anyone says anything about the date in the question it is correct. Jackie Robinson signed to play with the Brooklyn Dodgers' minor league team, the Montreal Royals in early 1946. He played one year for them before being called up to the Dodgers with whom he debuted on April 15, 1947.