Ethical Ranks

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Rank Baseball's Ethical Scenarios

Want to play the "Baseball Ethics" game? Two randomly selected actual ethical incidents from baseball's storied history are listed below. Please tell us which one you consider to be "worse." In other words, select the one you think is less ethical than the other. As more people vote, each incident will, over time, develop its own winning percentage. When voting is complete, the full list of 133 incidents will be listed from "best" to "worst" on the Hardball Times site.

This material was developed for an American Studies course at Carleton College. You can read about it in this article. The entire bibliography of sources is on this page.

Here are your first two choices. Select the less ethical one and you'll be given the opportunity to make even more choices. Thanks for helping.

1. Enough is enough

How about the player who steals second base when his team is up by 10 runs? Such a player is often accused of being a poor sport, or "rubbing it in." Or, as the old baseball cliche goes, perhaps he is just a committed ball player who gives 100% every day?

2. Potato

It wasn't a major league game, to be sure, but the bizarre potato story is worth recounting. The Double A Williamsport club was mired 27 games out of first place in an Aug. 31, 1987, game against the Reading Phillies. Rick Lundblade was the runner at third for the Phillies when the enterprising Williamsport backstop, Dave Bresnahan, called time out. He ambled over to the dugout, supposedly to replace his ripped catcher's glove, an act that raised no eyebrows. Then he walked back to his position with a new glove, and, it turned out, a nicely peeled potato hidden on his person.

After catching his pitcher's next offering, Bresnahan chucked the potato far over the third baseman's head out into left field, in what appeared to be a wild pickoff attempt. Lundblade scampered home, only to be tagged out with the game ball by Bresnahan. When the umpiring crew finally figured out what had happened, they ruled that Lundblade had, in fact, scored. They tossed Bresnahan out of the game and fined him $50. Bresnahan was then let go by the Williamsport club, which nonetheless held a special promotion on the last day of the season, admitting any fan with a potato for $1. It seemed all had been forgotten; Bresnahan was brought back to the park by the Williamsport team for the special day and assigned the task of autographing the potatoes. (Gutman, pp. 192-193)