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Intentional Balk: Baseball's Thin Line Between Innovation and Cheating
From the moment of its inception, the quintessentially American sport of baseball has included cheating. Sometimes that rule-skirting is embraced as ingenious hijinks; other times, reviled as an unforgivable trespass. But what exactly is the difference? Why is skipping bases less egregious than signing underage players? Is sign-stealing evidence of ingenuity, or does it fundamentally change the nature of the game?
In Intentional Balk, nationally-recognized baseball historians Dan Levitt and Mark Armour examine cheating in baseball as the pursuit of a competitive edge that in other endeavors might be heralded as innovation.
Wherever you come down on the question, Intentional Balk offers an engrossing chronicle of America’s pastime and the players, coaches, groundskeepers and management who for more than 150 years have sought any advantage to win at all costs.
In Intentional Balk, nationally-recognized baseball historians Dan Levitt and Mark Armour examine cheating in baseball as the pursuit of a competitive edge that in other endeavors might be heralded as innovation.
Wherever you come down on the question, Intentional Balk offers an engrossing chronicle of America’s pastime and the players, coaches, groundskeepers and management who for more than 150 years have sought any advantage to win at all costs.
- GenresBaseballNonfictionSports
256 pages, Paperback
First published July 12, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
April 26, 2023
Levitt and Armour’s book “Intentional Balk” is a fascinating look into the elastic line between innovation and cheating. The thesis here is that everyone in baseball from the players to the groundskeepers is looking to do whatever they can within the rules to gain a competitive advantage. Some things have been accepted while others are not. They write that: “Many of baseball’s most difficult cheating struggles have occurred not when the sport has changed its rules, but when it has decided to enforce the existing ones.” There are a myriad of examples of this given.
Some rule-bending is accepted if the players are doing on the field and can get away with it. Examples of this are pitch framing, pretending you caught a ball when you really trapped it, acting as if you were hit by a pitch when you weren’t, and letting a bad call stay if it is in your favor. But the corollary is that behind the scenes cheating- such as intentional use of a corked bat- is unacceptable.
Thus, they argue that there is often no bright line to determine when cheating begins. The most controversial example given is of course steroids which were once upon a time not against the rules and not tested for and not enforced. Now though there are strict rules that are enforced.
Overall, it is a fascinating walk through baseball history, particularly all the historical examples given. The conclusion is that the rules are often elastic when it comes to bare-knuckle competitiveness and gamesmanship and fooling the umpires, but anything that goes beyond a test of human competitiveness is not accepted and causes concern such as steroids as well as whether the bending of the rules is intricate and premeditated or just an attempt to get away with a pitch call or a ruling on whether a batter got hit.
Some rule-bending is accepted if the players are doing on the field and can get away with it. Examples of this are pitch framing, pretending you caught a ball when you really trapped it, acting as if you were hit by a pitch when you weren’t, and letting a bad call stay if it is in your favor. But the corollary is that behind the scenes cheating- such as intentional use of a corked bat- is unacceptable.
Thus, they argue that there is often no bright line to determine when cheating begins. The most controversial example given is of course steroids which were once upon a time not against the rules and not tested for and not enforced. Now though there are strict rules that are enforced.
Overall, it is a fascinating walk through baseball history, particularly all the historical examples given. The conclusion is that the rules are often elastic when it comes to bare-knuckle competitiveness and gamesmanship and fooling the umpires, but anything that goes beyond a test of human competitiveness is not accepted and causes concern such as steroids as well as whether the bending of the rules is intricate and premeditated or just an attempt to get away with a pitch call or a ruling on whether a batter got hit.
September 15, 2022
As any baseball fan knows, cheating has been part of the game for as long as the game has been played. No matter how one will define “cheating” – anything from breaking rules specifically documented in a rule book to some that are more vague and left for interpretation – its history in the game is quite interesting. This book by Daniel Levitt and Mark Armour explores the history of cheating in various forms and by various people in different roles.
One of the best aspects of this book for me was the authors’ detailed explanation in various chapters of why some people would get a pass for certain actions while others who may have committed the same or similar actions, most likely in a different era, were punished or scorned by the media and fans. An example that would be familiar to everyone would be the “steroid” era when some players decided to use performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) to improve their statistics compared to the use of substances in other eras such as amphetamines. The authors paint detailed stories of players using these drugs during both (and earlier) eras, but do note how earlier players, such as Pud Galvin, do not receive the same scrutiny as players like Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens.
This type of comparison is not limited to players who have been suspected of cheating. Owners and general managers are also included in this book and their actions may surprise some readers that they may have been considered cheating. Take Branch Rickey – he and several other owners at the time stashed players away instead of paying clubs for acquiring them from minor league teams, as was normal procedure in the early 20th century. So Rickey developed the farm system where specific minor league teams would develop players for the affiliated major league club – in Rickey’s case, the St. Louis Cardinals. This was considered “cheating” as it was against the rules, but unlike players, Rickey and others who developed this system get a pass and are credited as innovators.
These are just two examples of the manner in which Levitt and Armour write about the various forms of cheating – or innovation if you prefer – and nearly every type of rule infraction one can think of is included. Sign stealing – from telescopes to the trash can banging by the Houston Astros is one. So are foreign substances, corked bats, equipment alterations – it’s all there and makes for interesting reading. It should also be noted that the authors do a good job of staying neutral for the most part and not condemning or forgiving most of the people portrayed, instead choosing to simply report.
I wish to thank Clyde Hill Publishing for providing a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.
https://sportsbookguy.blogspot.com/20...
One of the best aspects of this book for me was the authors’ detailed explanation in various chapters of why some people would get a pass for certain actions while others who may have committed the same or similar actions, most likely in a different era, were punished or scorned by the media and fans. An example that would be familiar to everyone would be the “steroid” era when some players decided to use performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) to improve their statistics compared to the use of substances in other eras such as amphetamines. The authors paint detailed stories of players using these drugs during both (and earlier) eras, but do note how earlier players, such as Pud Galvin, do not receive the same scrutiny as players like Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens.
This type of comparison is not limited to players who have been suspected of cheating. Owners and general managers are also included in this book and their actions may surprise some readers that they may have been considered cheating. Take Branch Rickey – he and several other owners at the time stashed players away instead of paying clubs for acquiring them from minor league teams, as was normal procedure in the early 20th century. So Rickey developed the farm system where specific minor league teams would develop players for the affiliated major league club – in Rickey’s case, the St. Louis Cardinals. This was considered “cheating” as it was against the rules, but unlike players, Rickey and others who developed this system get a pass and are credited as innovators.
These are just two examples of the manner in which Levitt and Armour write about the various forms of cheating – or innovation if you prefer – and nearly every type of rule infraction one can think of is included. Sign stealing – from telescopes to the trash can banging by the Houston Astros is one. So are foreign substances, corked bats, equipment alterations – it’s all there and makes for interesting reading. It should also be noted that the authors do a good job of staying neutral for the most part and not condemning or forgiving most of the people portrayed, instead choosing to simply report.
I wish to thank Clyde Hill Publishing for providing a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.
https://sportsbookguy.blogspot.com/20...
December 20, 2022
I'm a baseball umpire, and big part of the problem is that there aren't specific rules to prohibit most cheating. The authors rightly point out that team management is also pretty soft on this - they would usually prefer that players and teams play on. The book covers a *lot* of ground on "creative" players, managers and owners.
The authors are both active in SABR, and there are a lot of references and notes for the incidents - the index is also ultra complete. The topics are solid - stealing signs, altering equipment, drugs, and flat out breaking the rules. They definitely missed the boat in not numbering the chapters as innings. I really enjoyed Mark Armour's Joe Cronin: A Life in Baseball. I just wish I enjoyed this one more...
The chapters are a bit scattered. Within a chapter, the anecdotes jump around chronologically. It would be nice to list the specific rules (if any) that relate to the topic. As an umpire, I didn't need this, and maybe hard core fans wouldn't, but is that the audience? Both chapters 2 and 4 refer to sign stealing - the latter more about electronics and trash cans, but the two have a lot of cross over.
I thought the epilog was well done. The authors came back to compare similar issues in different eras, some acceptable and some not. It is very true that a lot of the "cheating" is there because we have umpires, and this is loosely related to subjective foul calls in sports like basketball, American and non-American football (soccer). Only in the epilog did the authors reveal that random enforcement made a big difference in both drug use and foreign substances applied to baseballs.
In summary, it's a good book, but the early high ratings are mostly from baseball readers who have been eagerly awaiting the book. I suspect the ratings will drop quite a bit over the next few years. I don't want to hasten that drop too much, so I'll list this 3.5 star book as a 4 on goodreads :)
The authors are both active in SABR, and there are a lot of references and notes for the incidents - the index is also ultra complete. The topics are solid - stealing signs, altering equipment, drugs, and flat out breaking the rules. They definitely missed the boat in not numbering the chapters as innings. I really enjoyed Mark Armour's Joe Cronin: A Life in Baseball. I just wish I enjoyed this one more...
The chapters are a bit scattered. Within a chapter, the anecdotes jump around chronologically. It would be nice to list the specific rules (if any) that relate to the topic. As an umpire, I didn't need this, and maybe hard core fans wouldn't, but is that the audience? Both chapters 2 and 4 refer to sign stealing - the latter more about electronics and trash cans, but the two have a lot of cross over.
I thought the epilog was well done. The authors came back to compare similar issues in different eras, some acceptable and some not. It is very true that a lot of the "cheating" is there because we have umpires, and this is loosely related to subjective foul calls in sports like basketball, American and non-American football (soccer). Only in the epilog did the authors reveal that random enforcement made a big difference in both drug use and foreign substances applied to baseballs.
In summary, it's a good book, but the early high ratings are mostly from baseball readers who have been eagerly awaiting the book. I suspect the ratings will drop quite a bit over the next few years. I don't want to hasten that drop too much, so I'll list this 3.5 star book as a 4 on goodreads :)
January 12, 2023
Fun book with hilarious, unique stories from baseball’s past. Could have used another round of pre-publication proofreading.
April 10, 2023
2023 Seymour Medal Winner
Briefly: Cheating, contextualized
Intentional Balk presents a comprehensive guide to all aspects of rule-bending across baseball. It is an easy read, with separate chapters devoted to each brand of rule-breaking designed to paint the historical picture and contextualize the particular incidents that make up each category of cheating.
The authors engage in limited moralizing, mostly evaluating the severity of any given infraction using the yardstick of fan and media reaction—though even this is generally done to identify the hypocrisy or contradictions in those perceptions rather than to pass judgment upon the players or personnel engaged in rule-breaking.
The book is perhaps missing a Grand Unifying Theory of Cheating against which to evaluate different brands of cheating. It nibbles around the edges of one, highlighting the connection between consistency of enforcement, severity of punishment, and prevalence of infraction, but never out-and-out draws this throughline or uses it as an evaluation tool. Nonetheless, one comes away with a better educated and more nuanced, contextualized view of baseball rules infractions, making Intentional Balk largely successful.
Briefly: Cheating, contextualized
Intentional Balk presents a comprehensive guide to all aspects of rule-bending across baseball. It is an easy read, with separate chapters devoted to each brand of rule-breaking designed to paint the historical picture and contextualize the particular incidents that make up each category of cheating.
The authors engage in limited moralizing, mostly evaluating the severity of any given infraction using the yardstick of fan and media reaction—though even this is generally done to identify the hypocrisy or contradictions in those perceptions rather than to pass judgment upon the players or personnel engaged in rule-breaking.
The book is perhaps missing a Grand Unifying Theory of Cheating against which to evaluate different brands of cheating. It nibbles around the edges of one, highlighting the connection between consistency of enforcement, severity of punishment, and prevalence of infraction, but never out-and-out draws this throughline or uses it as an evaluation tool. Nonetheless, one comes away with a better educated and more nuanced, contextualized view of baseball rules infractions, making Intentional Balk largely successful.
January 28, 2025
What's cheating? What's just gamesmanship? Great questions that the authors explore in the world of baseball, starting way back at the game's origin and to the present day.
For 150 years, baseball employees, in uniform and out, have pushed and bent and broken the game’s rules to help their teams win. To reach the pinnacle of their profession, 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?
There seems to be much less tolerance for cheating today than ever before—are we becoming more honest, or just more judgmental?
The authors are friends and fellow members of the Society for American Baseball Research. But this is absolutely not a book that will go over most baseball fan's heads. It's a down to earth look at cheating in sport. You don't need to be a baseball nerd to like this. It's a great study in human behavior and the efforts of some humans trying to game the system while another organization tries to legislate and control behavior. And all inside the great game of baseball.
For 150 years, baseball employees, in uniform and out, have pushed and bent and broken the game’s rules to help their teams win. To reach the pinnacle of their profession, 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?
There seems to be much less tolerance for cheating today than ever before—are we becoming more honest, or just more judgmental?
The authors are friends and fellow members of the Society for American Baseball Research. But this is absolutely not a book that will go over most baseball fan's heads. It's a down to earth look at cheating in sport. You don't need to be a baseball nerd to like this. It's a great study in human behavior and the efforts of some humans trying to game the system while another organization tries to legislate and control behavior. And all inside the great game of baseball.
March 9, 2023
This is book for the hardcore baseball fan. It explores the hidden underbelly of baseball-cheating. But is it just plain cheating or just getting an edge up on your opponent.
Cheating in baseball is not new. It has been going on since guys grabbed a ball and bat. And those are two of the things Levitt and Armor explore-what has been done to bats and balls over the years to make them more effective in a player's hands.
There are lots of stories about different methods of cheating from sign stealing, to roster manipulations to ways to cut the grass and slope the field that will keep you interested. There are also a couple of chapters that can put you to sleep.
Enjoyable but not for everyone.
Cheating in baseball is not new. It has been going on since guys grabbed a ball and bat. And those are two of the things Levitt and Armor explore-what has been done to bats and balls over the years to make them more effective in a player's hands.
There are lots of stories about different methods of cheating from sign stealing, to roster manipulations to ways to cut the grass and slope the field that will keep you interested. There are also a couple of chapters that can put you to sleep.
Enjoyable but not for everyone.
August 31, 2022
"Baseball is a culture that, more often than not, rewards rulebreaking." Really enjoyable look at how baseball players and teams have approached the rule book. Interesting to see how rule breaking by players and team, and corresponding ignoring the rule breaking by the league, has been prevalent in baseball since it’s inception.
August 22, 2022
Interesting, enjoyable and thought provoking.
October 11, 2022
Outstanding, richly detailed look at the methods employed by players, executives, even groundskeepers to gain an advantage in baseball.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews