Sending a harsh message to sports’ cheaters
By Ken Reed
Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred handed the Houston Astros severe penalties for cheating this week.
Manfred suspended Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow and manager A.J. Hinch for a year each for their role in using electronic equipment to steal the signs of opponents. He also fined the organization $5 million and stripped the Astros of their first- and second-round draft picks in both 2020 and 2021.
Following the announcement of the penalties, Astros owner Jim Crane fired Luhnow and Hinch.
The penalties were stiff but necessary. As a society, we need to have ethics and integrity in sports or their value is severely diminished.
The actions taken by Manfred will send a positive message throughout the baseball world, from the professional level down to the little leagues.
I like it. It’s good for the game. And a great statement to young players.
Legendary football coach Vince Lombardi reportedly once said that “winning isn’t everything. It’s the only thing.” That’s the mindset that those involved with the Astros cheating scandal apparently live by.
It’s a wretched approach to sports. A win-at-all-costs mentality is an ego-based approach and represents sport at its worst. On the other hand, a soul-based approach to sports is driven by the ethos of fair play and sportsmanship. That’s sport at its best.
Cheating is simply the antithesis of sport at its best.
Striving to win isn’t the problem. That’s part of the essence of sport. Striving to win at all costs is the problem.
As a teenager, I remember my parents telling me how important fair play and sportsmanship are when you take the field. I recall them paraphrasing the old Grantland Rice quote, “It’s not whether you win or lose, but how you play the game.”
I would nod, give a cursory “Yeah, it’s important” and quickly get back to the business of being a self-absorbed teenager. It’s not that I disagreed with them about the importance of fair play and sportsmanship, it’s just that I couldn’t really grasp how it could be the most important thing.
Today, I get it. I’m convinced that how you play the game is the most important thing in sports – above and beyond all team and individual accomplishments and awards.
I believe that no matter how long your sports career lasts, whether it ends after Little League or after winning the World Series, what you will most be remembered for is what kind of competitor you were, whether you respected the game and whether you competed with integrity.
Did you play hard, strive to win and do it by the rules? Did you exhibit good sportsmanship?
The Astros flunked those tests in this case.
Sadly, the legacy of Luhnow and Hinch will be that they were the leaders of a team that cheated in their quest to win a World Series. They will always be part of any story about cheating in baseball, right there alongside the Black Sox, Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and other cheaters throughout the game’s history.
After all these years, perhaps nobody has described the spiritual aspect of sports as succinctly as Rice did in his famous poem:
“For when the One Great Scorer comes to mark against your name, He writes – not that you won or lost – but how you played the game.”
Hopefully, the penalties Manfred gave Luhnow, Hinch and the Astros this week will strongly reinforce that message throughout the sports world.
— Ken Reed is sports policy director for League of Fans, a sports reform project. He is the author of The Sports Reformers, Ego vs. Soul in Sports, and How We Can Save Sports.
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Episode #29 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: The Honorable Tom McMillen Visits League of Fans’ Sports Forum – McMillen is a former All-American basketball player, Olympian, Rhodes Scholar and U.S. Congressman. We discuss the state of college athletics today.
Episode #28 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: A Chat With Mano Watsa, a Leading Basketball and Life Educator – Watsa is President of PGC Basketball, the largest education basketball camp in the world. We discuss problems in youth sports today.
Episode #27 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: Kids’ Sports: How We Can Take Back the Game and Restore Quality Family Time In the Process – Linda Flanagan is author of “Take Back the Game: How Money and Mania Are Ruining Kids’ Sports and Why It Matters.” We discuss how commercialized and professionalized youth sports are hurting kids and their families.
Episode #26 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: How Can We Fix Youth Sports? – John O’Sullivan is Founder and CEO of Changing the Game Project and author of “Changing the Game: The Parents Guide to Raising Happy, High Performing Athletes and Giving Youth Sports Back to Our Kids.”
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Media
"How We Can Save Sports" author Ken Reed appears on Fox & Friends to explain how there's "too much adult in youth sports."
Ken Reed appears on Mornings with Gail from KFKA Radio in Colorado to discuss bad parenting in youth athletics.
“Should College Athletes Be Paid?” Ken Reed on The Morning Show from Wisconsin Public Radio
Ken Reed appears on KGNU Community Radio in Colorado (at 02:30) to discuss equality in sports and Title IX.
Ken Reed appears on the Ralph Nader Radio Hour (at 38:35) to discuss his book The Sports Reformers: Working to Make the World of Sports a Better Place, and to talk about some current sports issues.
- Reed Appears on Ralph Nader Radio Hour League of Fans’ sports policy director, Ken Reed, Ralph Nader and the New York Times’ Tyler Kepner discussed a variety of sports issues on Nader’s radio show as well as Reed’s updated book, How We Can Save Sports: A Game Plan. Reed's book was released in paperback in February, and has a new introduction and several updated sections.
League of Fans is a sports reform project founded by Ralph Nader to fight for the higher principles of justice, fair play, equal opportunity and civil rights in sports; and to encourage safety and civic responsibility in sports industry and culture.
Vanderbilt Sport & Society - On The Ball with Andrew Maraniss with guest Ken Reed, Sports Policy Director for League of Fans and author of How We Can Save Sports: A Game Plan
Sports & Torts – Ken Reed, Sports Policy Director, League of Fans – at the American Museum of Tort Law
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