Last week this forum took on something happening in many professional sports, specifically in my favorite sport, dubbed the “American Pastime.” Unfortunately, the buck, or in many cases not, the bucks, doesn’t/don’t stop in with the pros, it seems to have (and is seemingly increasing in volume, as it has) made a splash in college sports, and is even trickling down into the high school sports programs. It is a two-fold problem, one being the huge influx of gambling on sports, and the other being the increasing instances of cheating in the sports world. Welcome to Part 2 of this narrative.

Situations like the ones mentioned last week aren’t only confined to Professional Sports. Many college teams have been investigated for a variety of allegations of violations of NCAA rules and regulations. Schools have been punished for stealing signs, and players receiving gifts and/or some type of what looks like payment for playing, before NIL and Transfer Portals came to college sports. Coaches have received slaps on the wrists, having to sit out a number of games (usually 1 to 3 against much weaker opponents) because their program has been found guilty of violating NCAA rules. Most of the suspensions from games they have had to serve were like spankings administered with padded pink velvet paddles, and because they were in the first part of the season where their school’s opponents were much weaker and huge underdogs for those games, most, if not all, “punishment” games were still won by the team serving the suspensions.

It hasn’t stopped there. In a first-person Op-Ed column titled “My View,” published in the Buffalo News at the end of last high school baseball season, a Southern Tier resident, whose late father was a big part of Baseball in our area for many years, expressed his thoughts about a situation that happened in a Buffalo area High School Baseball game. His dad (R. I. P.) was a full-time, supervising MLB scout with the Detroit Tigers for nearly 40 years, and also a charter member of the Major League Baseball Scouting Bureau, so his son was taught all about the game, preparation, playing to the best of one’s ability, and just as important, playing fair and maintaining the integrity of the game of baseball. (I had the pleasure and opportunity to meet, listen to, and learn from, just by that listening, his dad on several occasions at games when I was JHS’s Baseball Coach. He was as good a baseball man, advocate, promoter, and lover of the game, as I have ever met in my more than 50 years I was actively associated with the game.)

The son’s newspaper narrative concerned a high school baseball team who appeared to be throwing a game toward the end of the season, which would result in their being matched up with a weaker first round playoff opponent, than they would be matched with if they had won the game. In said game, the team appearing to “tank” the game was up 7-0, when suspicious things began happening. They started with a lengthy team meeting held on the mound by the team winning 7-0, followed by the pitcher throwing nine consecutive pitches out of the strike zone. After that, the first baseman, fielded a grounder raced toward the bag, arriving way before the runner, but appeared to intentionally, and allegedly, miss touching the base. Later in the game, one of the players on the team originally ahead, “carelessly” stepped off the bag and was tagged out, and, also, one of the defenders on the 7-0 team walked off the field while the game was still in progress for reasons unknown. When all was said and done, the team trailing 7-0 before the mound visit, was now winning 14-7. That being the final score, it was, rightfully so, described in the piece as, a “hollow win.” The “winning” coach, after the game, wrote a letter to the sectional baseball coordinator asking that the conduct of the team who “lost” be investigated, expressing what he called “blatant, flagrant, and obvious abuse of the game.” The coach of the “losing team” stepped back from coaching until further notice after the letter was written. The author also expressed that his suggested solution should have been the team that “lost” the team should have been removed from any future participation in the sport for this year. (I’d add that the coach of that team be permanently banned from coaching interscholastic sports.)

It’s sad that in sports, starting with the pros, and seemingly trickling down, in many (not all) cases of cheating in any way shape or form, the adage “Cheaters never Prosper,” is a myth, as in many instances, some kids violate team expectations, yet are in uniform for the next game, some coaches do whatever they can to get away with breaking rules, or acting in unethical, and unfair ways, but forfeitures and loss of awards, don’t seem to happen consistently, as they should. If there are rules for fair play and the betterment of teams, conferences, leagues, etc., the consequences for violations need to be consistent without preference, or bias.

The great Coach, Vince Lombardi, whom I still admire to this day, once said, “Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing.” He also added, “Winning isn’t everything, but wanting to win is.” The full quote didn’t emphasize the outcome, as the first part did, but emphasized the goals set, and the desire and preparation needed to reach it.

Maybe if we stop promoting gambling in so many sports stadia, arenas, and venues, and maybe, if college athletes realized that they were already getting paid with hundreds of thousands of dollars in scholarships (and that is a payment), that would be a great start toward a solution to this problem. Maybe if we were more consistent (you can’t suspend some, while slapping the wrists of another, and make another stand in a corner for an hour, for commissions of the same infractions) in consequences of cheating for whatever violations of rules on any and all levels from youth programs to school programs, to colleges programs, to the Minor Leagues, to the Major Leagues, it might bring back the integrity and Fair Play which our sports programs, on every level, deserve. Maybe if we start managing, coaching, teaching, and making clear, what the real goals and purpose of sports are, and pass those ideals onto our teams, leagues, etc., the ideals of respecting the games they play, with fair play, playing by the rules, and sportsmanship, will return, and maybe we can go back to playing the games, for the reasons (teamwork, effort, hard work, life skills, etc., and fun) the games/sports were created, we can honestly return to shaking the hands of our opponents, win or lose, with grace, class, and dignity. Please note, that’s a lot of maybes, but it is definitely doable. It just takes letting athletes know the expectations right from the start, any consequences for not living up to those school and team expectations, and consistency in administrating any consequences or discipline explained to them at the start of the season each year.

Let’s hope the words of the musical group R. E. M., “It’s the end of the world as we know it…,” aren’t tweaked to become, “It’s end of sports as we know it,” and sports will not head down the path of self-destruction.