I don’t want to over interpret, but it seems like the message everywhere in our society is that cheating is OK if you can get away with it (e.g. sports, politics, business, academics, research, etc. etc.).
Baseball has a lot of similarities, at least when it comes to things other than performance-enhancing drugs. There was something charming in a nostalgic kind of way about pitchers who would throw spitballs or doctor the baseball (spitballs used to be legal way back in the early decades of the 20th century). And there were always suspicions about how a grounds crew might put softer sand in the base paths if the home team was facing an opponent with fast runners in the lineup.
Perhaps the best case of bending the rules with the ballfield is "Ashburn's Ridge." Richie Ashburn played on the Phillies back in the 1950s. He was a fast runner and a good bunter, and the story was that the grounds crew at the old Connie Mack Stadium put a very slight hump in the ground up the third base line. This would help keep a slow-rolling bunt up the line from rolling foul. Gotta love it. LOL.
I dont want to over interpret, but it seems like the message everywhere in our society is that cheating is OK if you can get away with it (e.g. sports, politics, business, academics, research, etc. etc.).
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Yes, you are exactly right. It saddens me.