Fair is foul, and foul is fair, except in baseball
“Fair is foul, and foul is fair. Hover through the fog and filthy air.” For me that “Macbeth” scene carries over to the Astros’ cheating scandal that hovers over this year’s Spring Training.
Now, I like Spring Training. Heck, I like baseball. I have ever since I was playing in the sandlots and later in high school and the amateur leagues. I remember going crazy over the Brooklyn Dodgers winning the World Series in 1955 and I remember taking my son to see Pete Rose play in Cincinnati, and even getting him into the clubhouse to meet Pete — all great times. Yes, baseball has rewarded me for my passion.
But then late last year, I read that Major League Baseball Commissioner Robert Manfred found that the Houston Astros had been using the live-feed from the center-field camera to decode the pitcher’s signs and transmit them to the batter. One of the players in the dugout would then transmit the signal by taking a bat and banging on a trash can, with one or two bangs reflecting various off-speed pitches; not banging at all would indicate a fastball. The traditions in baseball are sacred. I know that electronic cheating is absolutely wrong, even as I may applaud a runner on second base who can visually decode the catcher’s signs and tip off the batter.
We might call this scheme “Cheaty Cheaty
Bang Bang,” giving homage to that classic children’s movie. Except this scheme was not child’s play. Indeed, in 2017, the Astros won the World Series.
Manfred suspended without pay the general manager, the field manager and one or two assistant managers or coaches, all of whom were immediately fired.
But what about the players? They were the actual perpetrators, yet they were neither suspended nor banished from baseball. Why? Because Manfred concluded that it would be too difficult and too impractical for him to discipline them. Say what?
Later, Manfred went on to say he believes that no express punishment was fair because the public shaming of those players was punishment enough. The punishment Manfred seems to think is fair is a punishment everyone else thinks is foul. And I don’t mean the punishment was just a foul ball. Just ask the Dodgers who lost the 2017 World Series if they believe no punishment was fair.
Contrast this entire case with the investigation and punishment of Pete Rose, the undisputed hit king of Major League Baseball. While that investigation established, and Pete Rose finally admitted, that he had personally bet on his team winning baseball games, it was equally clear that no one had ever claimed that he affected or could have affected the outcome of a game by his betting. Yet, he was banned from baseball for life, and separately banned from Baseball’s Hall of Fame. (In that regard, I should disclose that years ago I helped my partner,
Roger Makley, on some of the legal issues affecting his investigation.)
So, in the final analysis, although Pete’s actions were foul, his lifetime banishment does not seem fair, especially since the Astro players are not getting suspended or banished even though they arguably did affect the outcome of games, maybe even the World Series. Instead, these players are soaking up the sun at Spring Training. But, for me and for many fans, I think those players will always have hovering over them the fog and filthy air of the cheating scandal, and they will always hear a witch or two reminding them that fair is foul, and foul is fair.