by Neal Acito

Created on: April 10, 2008   Last Updated: November 23, 2010

Sadly, we tolerate it. The fans don't care. Today in baseball, cheating has become an acceptable part of the game.

Forget the Majors, there's more cheating in Little League than you'll ever see in professional baseball. We've seen kids with fake birth certificates. We've got illegal bats, sign stealing, and yes, even steroid use among junior athletes. Right now, somewhere in America, a coach is teaching a kid to throw a spitter. All of this is happening with the tacit approval of parents and coaches. Sad to say, cheating and baseball go together like hot dogs and mustard.

There are good coaches out there who are disdainful of this behavior. However, even the most well-intentioned coach is teaching your child how to be deceptive. Don't believe me? Here's a test-

You're coaching a catcher. The pitcher throws one just outside the strike zone. Do you tell the kid to:

A) Leave his mitt out there where he caught the ball.

B) Pull the mitt into the strike zone.

Most would choose B. You don't want to leave the mitt outside the strike zone for too long. Doing so increases the chances of the umpire calling it a "ball". If you pull the mitt in close to the chest, however, the umpire might just be fooled into calling it a strike.

So, what's wrong with that? It's part of the game, right? There's nothing illegal about it, after all. What's wrong with a little competitive edge?

Well, to begin with, we're actually teaching our kids to be deceptive. A called strike rewards them.

Baseball is the only discipline that rewards this sort of behavior. You won't see this in science class, for example. If your experiment fails, it's painfully obvious from the explosion you caused. You can't cheat at answering the phone, washing the car, or turning the clocks back on daylight savings time. In fact, most things we do on a daily basis are straight up honest.

Except for baseball. When it comes to America's favorite pastime, we collectively leave our ethics in the parking lot.

I was watching a Little League baseball game once. The little fellow at the plate hit a fly ball down the first base line. It landed in right field, just over the line and into foul territory. The bench jumped up immediately and called it "fair". The team in the field called it "foul". It looked foul to me, a decision shared by the umpire.

"Foul ball," he bellowed.

After a few groans from the bench, the little fellow trotted back to home plate to try again. As I looked at the disappointed faces of the home team, it

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