Tue, Aug 09, 2005 page20

• Baseball literature littered with record-breaking cheats

  • NY TIMES NEWS SERVICE
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  For all the reverence that baseball's record book receives, the sport has never been inclined to penalize the convicted or admitted cheats within it.

  Consider Gaylord Perry, who from 1962 to 1983 unabashedly threw pitches slathered with Vaseline while winning 314 games and earning entry to the Hall of Fame. Or Norm Cash, a slugger for the Detroit Tigers, who in 1961 admittedly corked his bat and hit an impressive .361 with 41 home runs and 132 runs batted in; in his next 13 seasons in the major leagues, his batting average never rose higher than .283.

  Their numbers live forever in encyclopedias and on various lists as if they had been accomplished squarely within the rules.

  But with the 10-day suspension last week of the Baltimore Orioles' Rafael Palmeiro, who tested positive for using steroids, the debate was joined once again over how to enter steroid-tainted achievements in the record books.

  If any group would be most outraged by last week's disclosure, it is the records committee of the Society for American Baseball Research, a worldwide organization of nearly 7,000 intent on maintaining the integrity of baseball's historical record. The group held its annual meeting here last week.

  The members of this committee are known for two things: caring deeply about home runs, batting averages and other statistical details, and, just as starkly, never agreeing on anything. After all, these are the people who argued for days about a double here and a putout there, and whether Ferdie Schupp of the New York Giants actually posted the National League's lowest earned run average back in 1916 -- a jaw-dropping 0.90.

  The group of about 50 experts almost immediately reached a consensus on the steroids quandary. Perhaps more reflexively than most baseball fans stung by Palmeiro's suspension, most of these seasoned numbers buffs remained resignedly pragmatic when determining how steroids should be dealt with in the record book.

  Sports statistics to these committee members remain unalterable facts, simple if not pure.

  Moral of the story

  "We're not moralists," said Lyle Spatz, the committee's chairman. "We count which players hit such-and-such home runs, not whether they quote-unquote deserved them."

  David Vincent, who specializes in home run information, brought up Whitey Ford, who admitted to throwing doctored baseballs late in his career: "Where's the moral indignation there?"

  When talk turned to how baseball's playing conditions have constantly evolved, from night games and integration to artificial turf and tiny strike zones, one sarcastically suggested that all 20th century hitters be thrown out because fielders now wear gloves.

  All sports have learned that trying to unring the bell for any reason, cheating or otherwise, has always been a rather clunky exercise -- one that not only rings hollow but is often rescinded decades later.

  Baseball can lay claim to the most awkward instance of all, the handling of Roger Maris' 61 home runs in 1961. That year, the season had been extended to 162 games, eight game more than when Babe Ruth had set the mark with 60 in 1927. Baseball officials, wanting to protect Ruth's majesty, decided to list both Yankees as record-holders. (Contrary to legend, an asterisk by Maris' name was never used.)

  But soon after baseball got used to the 162-game schedule, fans and officials alike realized the distinction was long obsolete, and so in 1991, Fay Vincent, the commissioner of Major League Baseball, officially removed Ruth's name and left Maris alone -- confirming that in sports, even mental asterisks have half-lives.

  The higher home run marks posted recently -- particularly the 70 by Mark McGwire in 1998 and 73 by Barry Bonds in 2001 -- have grown troublesome because of questions regarding the role illegal steroids might have played in them. McGwire's "I'm not here to discuss the past" testimony to a congressional committee in March begged suspicion over what that past included; several months before, The San Francisco Chronicle reported that Bonds, speaking to a grand jury investigating the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, had admitted unknowingly using a banned substance.

  Around that time, the current commissioner, Bud Selig, said that he could not even consider altering the record books because "there have been no players convicted of anything." He added, "That's a question that if there's a necessity I'll look at something in the future."

  McGwire, who retired in 2001, and Bonds, who has not played this season because of injury, have not been cited by Major League Baseball as having failed a drug test. But with the news last week about Palmeiro -- one of four players with more than 3,000 hits and 500 home runs -- the issue became more real and immediate.

  "I want to know exactly what happened," Selig said Friday through a spokesman for Major League Baseball. "I want to know all the facts. Then I'll make a decision."

  MLB's approach in the past has been to do nothing at all, even after a clear admission.

  Good old corky

  Cash, the Tigers slugger, admitted his deception in a magazine article, a wink-wink mea culpa others have used after they believe the statute of limitations on their crimes has expired. Ford and a fellow pitching star from the 1950s, Preacher Roe of the Brooklyn Dodgers, claimed to have thrown illegally scraped baseballs -- Roe's first-person expose in Sports Illustrated carried the headline, "The Outlaw Pitch Was My Money Pitch" -- but no adjustments to their records have been made or seriously suggested.

  Who knows how many times Richie Ashburn of the 1950s Philadelphia Phillies bunted safely because the third-base line at his Shibe Park was purposely sloped? In 1968, when Mickey Mantle was tied with Jimmie Foxx at 534 home runs, Denny McLain, on the mound for the Detroit Tigers, offered to throw Mantle the next pitch wherever he wanted. Mantle subsequently hammered the ball over the fence and moved ahead of Foxx.

  On Thursday night, members of the SABR records committee -- which has no relationship with Major League Baseball -- had reconciled their feelings and agreed that little could or should be done to denote any player's use of illegal steroids. Members cited how many artificial factors like smaller ballparks, harder bats, smaller strike zones, legitimate weight-training and, yes, fielders wearing gloves have affected statistics since the days of Alexander Cartwright. Determining how a player may have benefited from steroids, they said, would be a foolish exercise -- particularly with no effort to revise the totals of players like Cash, Ford and Roe.

  "We hate the idea of the asterisk or removing records because they're examples of simple-minded thinking that caves in if you think about it for 10 minutes," Bill James, the renowned baseball statistics expert who now is a consultant for the Boston Red Sox, said during the meeting.

  Players have always broken rules, the experts said. Using steroids may also be a violation of federal law, but it was quickly noted that Babe Ruth was not exactly sober for all of the 637 home runs he hit between the 18th and 21st Amendments.

  "A record's a record," David Vincent said during the meeting. "A number doesn't have any moral value. People do."

  "Or don't," several members added.
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