Sometime in early August, I received an email from Jane Reilly, a senior publicist with Smith Publicity, Inc. introducing me to a soon to be published baseball book titled “Intentional Balk – Baseball’s Thin Line Between Innovation and Cheating.” Reading Jane’s email, I nodded in agreement and thought about several instances almost immediately. In my baseball lifetime alone, I have witnessed the trash cans, the Apple Watches, Pine Tar too far up George Brett’s bat, a nail file falling out of a pitcher’s back pocket on live TV, PEDs, HGHs, and so on. I have also seen the game remove the neighborhood play, make efforts to reduce sign stealing, and work to clean up the game from non-prescribed athletic performance enhancers. I was intrigued by the title of the book and was excited to read more from Jane about the book, its authors, and to get a chance to read more about this very interesting baseball topic and philosophical debate.

In her email, Reilly stated that “to reach the pinnacle of their profession, baseball players must be highly competitive, and it has long been accepted that players can and should do whatever they can to win, particularly as it relates to the game on the field, even if such play is technically a rule violation. Why are some forms of cheating tolerated and even openly joked about while others lead to scandal? Where is the line between deception and cheating, and how has that changed over the decades?” The neighborhood play was used in baseball organizations from youth baseball to the Major Leagues for decades, until it was outed by the likes of instant replay and coaches challenges. It was acceptable for years, then it wasn’t. This is why this book was so interesting to read. What was once accepted, then became unacceptable and who made that call and why was it okay from 1900-1999, but not okay from 1999-present day baseball.

It took two very bright baseball minds to research, debate, and publish a book like this. Here are the authors and what they were trying to accomplish, per Jane Reilly’s email. “In their new book, Intentional Balk: Baseball’s Thin Line Between Innovation and Cheating, nationally-recognized baseball historians and best-selling authors, Daniel R. Levitt and Mark Armour, have written the definitive history of cheating in baseball, and deliver an engrossing chronicle of America’s pastime and the players, coaches, groundskeepers and management who have sought any advantage to win at all costs. Meticulously researched, Intentional Balk is a comprehensive look at every form of baseball cheating, its origins, its practitioners, and how cheating has been treated within the game. Some of the stories are humorous, others are serious. Many rule-breakers are in the Hall of Fame, while others are pariahs in the sport. There seems to be much less tolerance for cheating today than ever before—are we becoming more honest, or just more judgmental?”

Jane was kind enough to send me a copy of the book for review and I read it in just under a weekend. From the early organizations of professional baseball, teams and players and managers and owners and groundskeepers have sought out ways to get that all important stat, a W. A W means you have bested your opponent on that day and could signify a big win over a rival club or a division title, maybe a league title, perhaps a championship title. If your desire to win pushes you into that thin line area between innovation and cheating, well you very well may have ended up in this fantastic book. Rules are meant to form the foundation of society, of businesses, of relationships. How many of us drive over 55 mph on the highway, despite sign after sign telling us the Route 95 in Warwick, RI has a speed limit of 55 miles per hour? How many of us look at our grocery store receipt and realize that the extra package of American cheese in your bag was not rung up at Stop and Shop, and now here you are in your home, in your kitchen, realizing that you have a package of cheese that you did not pay for. This book has page after page of “is this acceptable”, “why was it acceptable”, and “how do you feel about what they dids”.

Scandals like the recent sign stealing incidents that suspended MLB coaches and front office personnel started innocently about 100 years ago with a pair of binoculars in a window in a center field wall. A series of hand gestures or a multi colored flag system or flashing lights – these seemingly innocent scandals were meant to give hitters an advantage against an overpowering pitcher. And like many of the scandals reported on in this book, eventually opposing managers and owners caught wind of the scandal and began to question the actions of the innovator/cheater. Windows were shut, opposing locker rooms were locked, binoculars were confiscated, and so on to remove the cheating/innovation from the game. Until technology evolved the scandal and then a new set of cheating/innovation would take place and then be questioned and then be outlawed. You have a theory on how to gain an advantage, you try it out innocently and on the QT, it works, you keep doing it, you slip up, you are discovered, you are reprimanded, and then for some you go back to the drawing board. This book is filled with this creative yet sometimes vicious circle of cheating/innovation.

From groundskeepers over watering the dirt areas around first and second base to uppers and greenies and vitamins to corked bats, Armour and Levitt tell the tales of the baseball organizations who looked outside the box to gain that all important W. Are we playing a team that has great speed this week? Great, let’s drown the base paths so the track feels like a mud pile. Can I get a little more bite on my curveball if a drag a nail across the seams? Great, here is how you do it. Will I be more alert and energetic with this little blue pill? Great, where can I get one or two or a season’s worth? Can I pinch hit with a player less than 4 feet tall and get a runner on base for my best hitters? Great, I will sign him on a 1 day contract. If I can figure out the sequencing on the catcher’s signs while I am at 2nd base, and lift my helmet off my head for a fastball, will that win us a game against Nolan Ryan? Perfect, I’ll do it. If it gets us a W, we can work out the philosophical dilemma in the morning. This book expertly weaves the reader through all of these types of cheating/innovative moments in baseball history.

So where will you stand on performance enhancing drugs, the steroid era of stats, players who used cocaine during a playoff game, nail files on a baseball to throw a better knuckleball, roster moves that make you shake your head, or a catcher that tricked a home plate umpire with a clever slight of hand? “Intentional Balk” is a history lesson on a topic many of us baseball people already know and some are even guilty of – the dilemma of the thin line between cheating and innovation to gain that all important W in the win column. Daniel R. Levitt and Mark Armour do a masterful job teaching, introducing, and reporting on the innovators, the cheaters, the scandals who have decided to walk “Baseball’s Thin Line Between Innovation and Cheating.” Great book, fantastic read, interesting topic, wide range of baseball players and eras covered, highly recommended. Here is where you can find and order your copy:

“Intentional Balk – Baseball’s Thin Line Between Innovation and Cheating”