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Comment by sam1r | Hacker News Reader

>> In just the last few years, the game of football has been party to a bounty scandal, performance-enhancing drug allegations, concussion-related suicides, rapes, murders, drunken driving deaths and at least one child-molestation scandal. The NBA has had a referee go to prison for betting on games he officiated. Baseball’s own Hall of Fame couldn’t find a single living player worthy of induction this year. And the NHL’s audiences and revenues have spiraled downward thanks to a number of labor disputes and games now appearing on cable channels nobody can find.

Wow! There goes the little FOMO I have [or had] on watching sports.

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I read recently that the gameplay of baseball is highly corrupt and oriented toward putting on a good show. https://slate.com/culture/2021/06/ball-doctoring-mlb-pitchin...

As a baseball fan, it's funny to see this article from a few cycles of the pitching/batting arms race ago.

Corrupt is not quite how I would describe what's going on. Baseball has always had elements of deception, rule bending, innovation in equipment, the need for secretive methods of communication (and therefore codebreaking), and acts that are against the rules but within the spirit of the game (and acts that aren't against the rules but do violate the spirit of the game).

Baseball has a very rich and complex culture surrounding it.

Perhaps it doesn't ruin the game, but it must have an effect of disillusionment. What do kids from Little League think? What do new recruits to the Major Leagues think? When do they find out?

This doesn't seem to be discussed by color commentators. My father's a huge fan and doesn't seem to mention stuff like that from modern times. I had the impression it was a few crooked pitchers who would eventually get caught.

Do any players try to play "honestly" without indulging in the rule breaking... sorry, bending, that "everybody else is doing"? How does that work out for them?

“Cheat? Good heavens, this is an amateur cricket match amongst leading prep schools, I'm an Englishman and a schoolmaster supposedly setting an example to his young charges. We are playing the most artistic and beautiful game ever devised. Of course I'll cunting well cheat.”

― Stephen Fry, The Liar.

it's understood to be a gray area. you're not supposed to be throwing spitballs, true, but batters aren't necessarily unhappy if pitchers have more control and are less likely to hit them in the head.

the players also aren't necessarily using special-purpose foreign substances; sometimes they take advantage of some combination of rosin, sunscreen, and sweat, each of which is totally legal.

the recent crackdown is basically only because it's a lever to improve batting. if offense got too good for some reason, i bet they would loosen up again.

Just to add to @currymj's response, sticky stuff won't help a Little League pitcher. There is a level of velocity and control you need that no 12 year old could muster.

pitchers ball doctoring all over the league still leaves a level playing field.

fixing games is the only kind of cheating that would really ruin the game.

From my outside point of view, it appears that every professional sport is highly corrupt. Some more so than others, though.

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