Saints and Sinners: Scandals can strike out integrity
Today it’s steroids. Thirty years ago it was the spitball. The man in the hot seat then was Gaylord Perry, a pitcher for the Cleveland Indians.
Today its Jose Canseco, a former big league player, who is blowing the whistle on a string of other alleged users of the illegal steroids, drugs that can enhance a player’s performance.
The story of Perry’s spitball drew national attention in 1974 with the publication of his “confessional” autobiography, “Me and the Spitter.”
Two installments of the book appeared in Sport Magazine.
“During a reception in the White House before the 1970 All Star Game in Washington,” Perry wrote, “Commissioner Bowie Kuhn introduced the players, one by one, to President Richard Nixon. When he got to me, the president jabbed his elbow in my ribs and whispered, “Gaylord, how do you do it?”
“Mr. President,” I said, “there are some things you just can’t tell people for their own good.”
The president roared and said, “Gaylord, you’d make a good politician.”
Reading that gave me an idea. I had remembered reading a story about Amos Alonzo Stagg whose College of the Pacific football team (where he coached from 1933 to 1946) was playing another college when a hot argument broke out. One of Stagg’s halfbacks had got off a 40-yard run down the sidelines for a touchdown. The other team, however, claimed he had stepped out of bounds on the 20-yard line.
The coach and players on the opposing team lit into the referee but he wouldn’t listen. Finally Stagg came over to see what was the matter. He had a suggestion.
“Why don’t you ask my player whether he went out of bounds?” said Stagg. “That will settle it.” Stagg not only was Mr. Integrity himself, he was able to teach integrity to his players.
So the player was asked, “Did you go out of bounds?”
“Yes,” replied the player. That was that. The ball was brought back to the 20-yard line.
Recalling that story, I asked myself why such an approach wouldn’t work with Perry.
I prepared two questions with which I would confront him. Do you throw a spitball (a pitch doctored with a lubricant like saliva that makes the ball do strange things)? Have you ever used a foreign substance when you throw the ball?
Pen and notebook in hand, I set out to find Perry. The interview appears in the book right after the episode with Nixon:
“Rev. George R. Plagenz, a former sports writer who now is religion editor of the Cleveland Press, stopped by my apartment during the 1972 season.
“‘Gaylord,’ he said, ‘I know you wouldn’t tell a lie to a preacher. Tell my readers you don’t throw the spitter and they’ll believe you.
“I told him, ‘I wouldn’t lie to you, Reverend, and I’d certainly like to answer your question but that would spoil the whole idea. You understand.'”
Well, I guess I did understand. The “whole idea” he was referring to was to keep the opposing players in the dark. Keep them guessing. Is he throwing a spitter or isn’t he? If they don’t know they won’t be able to dig in at the plate.
Nixon and I were on the same page but neither of us got an answer to our question.
I was right about one thing, though. I knew Perry wouldn’t lie to a man of the cloth. I wasn’t so sure about the players who appeared before Congress recently. Were they coming clean before the august (and skeptical) lawmakers on Capitol Hill?
We used to think sports built character. But if we want our sons to develop character today, having a paper route will do more for them than joining a Little League team. And check their dresser drawers for steroids.
George Plagenz is an ordained minister and veteran newsman based in Columbus, Ohio.