Review of "Intentional Balk"

With so much talk in the media about "cheating" in baseball, whether it was the Houston Astros sign stealing scandal to the recent denial of Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens into the Hall of Fame due to allegations of steroid use, there is no lack of material for a book on cheating in the game.  This book covers just about every type of rule-bending in the game.  Here is my review of "Intentional Balk."

Title/Author:

“Intentional Balk: Baseball’s Thin Line Between Innovation and Cheating” by Daniel R. Levitt and Mark Armour

Rating: 

4 of 5 stars (very good)

Review: As any baseball fan knows, cheating has been part of the game for as long as the game has been played.  No matter how one will define “cheating” – anything from breaking rules specifically documented in a rule book to some that are more vague and left for interpretation – its history in the game is quite interesting.  This book by Daniel Levitt and Mark Armour explores the history of cheating in various forms and by various people in different roles.

One of the best aspects of this book for me was the authors’ detailed explanation in various chapters of why some people would get a pass for certain actions while others who may have committed the same or similar actions, most likely in a different era, were punished or scorned by the media and fans.  An example that would be familiar to everyone would be the “steroid” era when some players decided to use performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) to improve their statistics compared to the use of substances in other eras such as amphetamines.  The authors paint detailed stories of players using these drugs during both (and earlier) eras, but do note how earlier players, such as Pud Galvin, do not receive the same scrutiny as players like Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens.

This type of comparison is not limited to players who have been suspected of cheating.  Owners and general managers are also included in this book and their actions may surprise some readers that they may have been considered cheating.  Take Branch Rickey – he and several other owners at the time stashed players away instead of paying clubs for acquiring them from minor league teams, as was normal procedure in the early 20^th century.  So Rickey developed the farm system where specific minor league teams would develop players for the affiliated major league club – in Rickey’s case, the St. Louis Cardinals.  This was considered “cheating” as it was against the rules, but unlike players, Rickey and others who developed this system get a pass and are credited as innovators.

These are just two examples of the manner in which Levitt and Armour write about the various forms of cheating – or innovation if you prefer – and nearly every type of rule infraction one can think of is included.  Sign stealing – from telescopes to the trash can banging by the Houston Astros is one.  So are foreign substances, corked bats, equipment alterations – it’s all there and makes for interesting reading. It should also be noted that the authors do a good job of staying neutral for the most part and not condemning or forgiving most of the people portrayed, instead choosing to simply report.

I wish to thank Clyde Hill Publishing for providing a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

 

Link: Intentional Balk: Baseball's Thin Line Between Innovation and Cheating: Levitt, Daniel, Armour, Mark: 9798985263268: Amazon.com: Books

Review of "Cheated"

 Anyone who heard any baseball news during spring training 2020 had heard news about the cheating scandal by the Houston Astros.  There is a book coming out this summer about the scandal that is an excellent read for a complete look at the scandal.  Here is my review of "Cheated".

Title/Author:

"Cheated: The Inside Story of the Astros Scandal and a Colorful History of Sign Stealing" by Andy Martino

Tags:

Baseball, professional, history, Astros, cheating

Publish date:

June 8, 2021

Length:

288 pages

Rating:

5 of 5 stars (outstanding)

Review:

No matter how closely one follows Major League Baseball, one has heard about the recent cheating scandal involving the Houston Astros and their use of technology in order to steal signs from the catcher to the pitcher. The cheating then went to various methods to communicate the pitch that would be coming to the batter, the most publicized of which was banging a trash can to tell the batter about the next pitch. This book about the scandal and also the history of sign-stealing in baseball is an excellent look into the characters and multiple angle of this story.

While the plot of the book is about the Astros and sign-stealing, there is some interesting side stories.  One I found particularly interesting was about the commissioner's office and why they – both Bud Selig and Rob Manfred – weren't so invested into investigating this heavily until well after the Astros used this scheme to win a World Series in 2017 and two American League pennants in three years. That was, in author Andy Martino's words, because Selig was more interested in bringing down Alex Rodriguez to clean up Selig's unkind legacy on steroids and then when Manfred took over, he put out rules to let teams know that violations of the rules to use electronic method to steal signals would not be tolerated.  He believed that self-policing with these rules would work – as we saw, it did not.

The book also nicely covers older cheating events, from the early 20^th century to the famous 1951 playoff game between the New York Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers.  He makes a great comparison of Ralph Branca, the Dodgers pitcher whose pitch to Bobby Thompson was signaled before Thompson hit the legendary homer, to players who also felt cheated out of important wins like Clayton Kershaw and Aaron Judge. Passages like this make the book very enjoyable for not only the Astros sign-stealing.

But, as one might expect from the title, Martino does his best work when writing about the main people in the cheating scandal – Astros manager A.J. Hinch, coach Alex Cora (who later managed the Boston Red Sox to the World Series title in 2018 but was later fired from that team for his role in the Astros scandal) and Carlos Beltran, who was a player in the last year of his 20 year career with the 2017 Astros (who, like Cora, also lost a managerial job over the scandal when he was fired by the New York Mets just months after being hired). Their roles were just a part of the story that brings out the investigative side of Martino extremely well.  Not only does he investigate and report on several different aspects of the scandal, he writes about this much like an espionage novel or an episode of investigative television shows with all the twists and turns, various accusations thrown out by so many people and eventually the illegal activity being exposed and those punished will get their just deserts. Or, in the case of that last statement, the punishment merited to be correct by the commissioner as many in the game felt that the Astros deserved more.  Even this aspect is covered in the book in the epilogue with a segment on the harsh treatment the Astros received during spring training in 2020.

After reading several of the books that came out soon after the 2017 Astros won the World Series praising how they made tearing a team down to the core and rebuilding with analytics the model of how to win a championship, this is a completely different approach to that Houston championship and one that should be read by any baseball fan.  

I wish to thank Doubleday for providing a copy of the book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Book Format Read:

E-book (Kindle)

Buying Links:

https://www.amazon.com/Cheated-Scandal-Colorful-History-Stealing-ebook/dp/B08HY2YXS7/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=