Underhandedness and Cheating in Sports

[Valmore]

So now that one of my favorite teams has been caught doing something less then savory... I'm looking at New England... I thought I'd start a thread to remember other great instances of such behavior in sports.

For instance, the Celtics have a history of being devious, and it goes back to the late, great Red Auerbach. During his tenure, he'd make sure at least one toilet in the guest's locker room was completely stopped up and overflowing. Those locker rooms were also right next to the furnaces in the Boston Garden, which would be heated up full blast before the game and at halftime.

And then there was Eddie Stanky, who used to play second base, and would jump up and down and flail his arms wildly to try and distract batters (known as the Stanky Maneuver).

[Dom]

Claude Lemieux was known for taking dives, cheap shots and being a generally underhanded person on the ice.

Luckily, hockey has a built in mechanism to deal with that. His name was Cam Neely.

Same for Ulf Samuelson, Bryan Marchement, Sean Avery and Darcy Tucker. Cheap shot artists, in a game that moves so fast and hard that it's difficult to catch and penalize.

[EmeraldCity]

I think Rogers Hornsby said it the best

I've cheated, or someone on my team has cheated, in almost every single game I've been in.

before I broke my left ankle (then 2 years later my right) I was considered for some big NCAA colleges for hoops. (went to jr high with Jason Terry from the Mavs in Seattle) And play in some of the high level AAU leagues, in every game people were cheating, stepping on feet when people were cutting, the good old thumb in the ass in the post and so on and so on..

[Valmore]

Bill Laimbeer and Vlade Divac are two of most notorious "floppers" in NBA history - dropping on the slightest contact to try and get a whistle from the refs. The difference between the two was Laimbeer would deck an opponent if he got a shot.

[FunkyGreenJerusalem]

Every player in the Fifa world cup who fell over and couldn't stand up again until the ref blew the whistle.

[EmeraldCity]

Bill Laimbeer and Vlade Divac are two of most notorious "floppers" in NBA history - dropping on the slightest contact to try and get a whistle from the refs. The difference between the two was Laimbeer would deck an opponent if he got a shot.


flopping is an art now.. shoot Vlade was mild compared to some guys there days.. Anderson Varejao flopped in an interview








(not really but it isn't unbelievable)

[mgs]

The Giants used to open up one end of the stadium when the opposing team was attempting a field goal b/c the whipped up winds would circulate more and mess up the air for the ball.

Cheating in sports has and always will be the way of things, be it drugs, equipment, etc. That's why it's necessary for rules to be strict. Not saying Congress should be involved, but...

[Valmore]

And in baseball... geez, stealing signs is like a time-honored tradition now. If you're a base runner on second you're expected to be watching the catcher. Not to mention all the funny stuff pitchers do or used to do - nail files, emory boards, sandpaper, spit, pine tar.

[Sir Tim Drake]

The Uganda national football (soccer) team received some rather underhanded treatment when they played a World Cup qualifier in Niger. In particular, they were put up in a hotel that was unacceptable even by Third World standards:

Meanwhile before yesterday's drama, the Cranes players had threatened to storm out of the hotel in protest claiming the hotel did not live to the exprectations. Indeed the hotel was bad as it was acknowledged by their director pleading with the team. The players said that besides having poor rooms, the hotel had the worst and insufficiet food.

" This is the worst hotel I have ever seen, it stinks, has no air condtioners and generally looks bad in the interior, you can not stay in Niger as hot as it is without an air conditioned room,” David Obua said.

http://www.myuganda.co.ug/sports/details.php?category=Soccer&unique=661

[FunkyGreenJerusalem]

Leagues without salary caps are open to being pretty crookedly run - way too easy to weight a few teams with good players that way.

(not to say that teams don't cheat to get around salary caps, but still).