Cheating in sports

[Deleted member 18645]

A massive story has hit the American sports market as the Houston Astros have been found guilty of cheating in baseball in giving signs to their hitters and gaining an unfair advantage. Their manager and GM have been suspended a year from the game and hence fired from their jobs, they have been hit with a $5M fine and lost their top two draft picks the next two seasons. This is a huge penalty and really sends a message to other teams.

So what other sports have really taken action on cheating? Athletics with drugs? Russia from the Olympics? The Aussie cricketers for a year?

And do other sports need to learn from this and bring their own houses in order?

 

[Dan2501]

The UFC made a huge move by bringing in USADA drug testing protocols. It wasn't a move forced on them by athletic commissions, they made a conscious decision to clean up the sport and it's made a significant difference and a number of suspected cheaters have either been caught red-handed or changed dramatically. A lot of other sports could learn from what they did, and the way they implemented it.

 

[patricks148]

cycling

 

[Wolf]

Saracens docked 35 points and fined £5m for breaking the salary cap. They need a championship winning season just to get out of the bottom of the table for this.

Other sports do need to increase sanctions for cheating including golf.

 

[USER1999]

Juventus were caught a few years ago.

 

[Doon frae Troon]

Rangers found out the hard way that cheats don't prosper.

When coaching promising youngsters at golf. We always told them if the got caught cheating, even just once, that the stigma would follow them for the rest of their life.
All the members of the clubs I played at knew who the cheating members were.

 

[IanM]

In football "falling over" is positively encouraged.....

...in cricket, when I was a school boy, if you got an edge, you walked. By the time I got paid for it, you would be fined if you did!

 

[Bunkermagnet]

A massive story has hit the American sports market as the Houston Astros have been found guilty of cheating in baseball in giving signs to their hitters and gaining an unfair advantage. Their manager and GM have been suspended a year from the game and hence fired from their jobs, they have been hit with a $5M fine and lost their top two draft picks the next two seasons. This is a huge penalty and really sends a message to other teams.

So what other sports have really taken action on cheating? Athletics with drugs? Russia from the Olympics? The Aussie cricketers for a year?

And do other sports need to learn from this and bring their own houses in order?

I read about this, and what amazes me is that the act of electronically recording a pitchers signal is illegal. I cannot believe that in the modern era this is illegal and something no-else does.
I would suggest most successful coaches across the globe in any sport will study the opposition for tells and weaknesses, or am I just being totally stupid here?

 

[pokerjoke]

I would seriously keep a close eye on Kenyan athletes atm world records being broke regularly now.
One of the greats has just been caught.
Don’t know if they get regular checks like we do over here especially at training venues.
Wouldn’t surprise me if there are hundreds at it,road running is big money.

 

[TheDiablo]

The rugby guys that got caught up in the bloodgate scandal got hit pretty hard

 

[SatchFan]

Just watch any Premier League game.

 

[Deleted member 18645]

I read about this, and what amazes me is that the act of electronically recording a pitchers signal is illegal. I cannot believe that in the modern era this is illegal and something no-else does.
I would suggest most successful coaches across the globe in any sport will study the opposition for tells and weaknesses, or am I just being totally stupid here?

All kinds of analysis is done on pitch tendencies. It is where analytics in sport really began with Moneyball. But the hitter v pitcher battle is fundamental to the game. The catcher gives a signal to the pitcher with his fingers as to what pitch to throw, fastball, curveball, slider, changeup etc. They do mix their signs up for example, with one strike, the third signal is the real one. What the Astros were doing was using a special TV camera to focus in on the catcher's signal, working out when it meant an off-speed pitch (ie not fastball) and then banging a dustbin in the clubhouse walkway that the batter could hear. Even I went back to an Astros playoff game and you could just hear it. It was blatant out and out cheating and they got caught thanks in part to one of their former pitchers grassing them up.

 

[larmen]

I always thought signalling and reading signals in baseball was normal?

Look at American football, they are actively hiding their faces when talking to the team do they can’t be read.

 

[Swango1980]

A footballer claims a throw in / corner kick, when it is clearly not the case. They get the decision and then their team ends up scoring a goal. Their original claim isn't even questioned in the studio, as it is just expected footballers will claim for every single decision going. Gary Neville was good at it, perhaps he even started the trend (and I'm a United fan)

 

[Bunkermagnet]

All kinds of analysis is done on pitch tendencies. It is where analytics in sport really began with Moneyball. But the hitter v pitcher battle is fundamental to the game. The catcher gives a signal to the pitcher with his fingers as to what pitch to throw, fastball, curveball, slider, changeup etc. They do mix their signs up for example, with one strike, the third signal is the real one. What the Astros were doing was using a special TV camera to focus in on the catcher's signal, working out when it meant an off-speed pitch (ie not fastball) and then banging a dustbin in the clubhouse walkway that the batter could hear. Even I went back to an Astros playoff game and you could just hear it. It was blatant out and out cheating and they got caught thanks in part to one of their former pitchers grassing them up.

I get the"fundamentals" but are you saying that no team could devise a code they changed for every game to communicate between pitcher and back-stop?
To me it just seems the next progression level of analysing the opponent and smart.

 

[Lord Tyrion]

I get the"fundamentals" but are you saying that no team could devise a code they changed for every game to communicate between pitcher and back-stop?
To me it just seems the next progression level of analysing the opponent and smart.

I find this an interesting one and I am with you on it. If a team decodes the signals then good on them. Rugby players try to crack the line out codes, I have a feeling that S.Africa did against England relatively recently and totally disrupted the line out. Football teams do it for corners. Cricketers try to do it against leg spinners when they will have codes with the keeper.

In baseball, and all sports, surely teams will scout the opposition to work out what they will do. It is up to the other team to be ahead of the game.

Cheating for me is taking drugs, trying to gain a clear material advantage illegally, trying to con an official etc. Cracking a code is smart in my eyes, not cheating. Maybe you have to be a diehard baseball fan to understand the issue here.

 

[Deleted member 18645]

I get the"fundamentals" but are you saying that no team could devise a code they changed for every game to communicate between pitcher and back-stop?
To me it just seems the next progression level of analysing the opponent and smart.

Teams will definitely start doing this with no runners on base - everyone does it with runners on. But the fact the Astros were using live game video in the clubhouse which is against the rules of MLB and then audibly communicating the information was a serious no-no. Most people in baseball think they got off lightly with this punishment.

 

[Tashyboy]

I think Dirty Leeds got caught filming oppositions training ground routines. Derby County spring to mind. But apparently the Leeds manager said it is common accepted practice where he comes from.
until the punishments fit the crime. It will continue.

 

[larmen]

I think Dirty Leeds got caught filming oppositions training ground routines. Derby County spring to mind. But apparently the Leeds manager said it is common accepted practice where he comes from.
until the punishments fit the crime. It will continue.

My team (Werder Bremen) had an opposition scout who got caught flying a drone over/along training grounds. Not cheating, but he got fined for flying a drone too close to buildings or something along that line.

 

[Kellfire]

Juventus were caught a few years ago.

Along with a few others. I think it was AC, Fiorentina and Lazio but not 100%.