Cheat to Win

It may not be "hip" in some circles to follow sporting events, but alas, I have been doing so since I was a lad. I adopted many a hero through the television set as he made the key play or scored the winning goal. Though I am not as ardent a fan as I once was, I still keep my eye on the score sheet from time to time.

These days, I flip through the sports pages and notice something different from what I used to read as a youngster: cheating, once a rare occurrence, has seemingly become the norm, as I now see story after story of an athlete failing a drug test. Even our most sparkling of heroes is not immune from the temptation of "performance enhancement" (we need not name names here, as they have received enough scorn already). The respective braintrusts of each sporting federation are scrambling to implement anti-doping protocols in a frenetic effort to "clean" their competitions.

Come to think of it, cheating isn't all that new to us, and no matter what actions we take to purge corruption from our precious pastimes, it always resurfaces.

In the past few years, many professional athletes have been accused of enhancing their abilities through foreign substances, many of whom have been found guilty and punished accordingly. There are countless other examples of cheating in sport; examples include unfair adjustments in automobile racing, match fixing in European football, video-taping opponents' practices in American football, point shaving in basketball, to name but a few. Pete Rose, the all-time leader in base hits in Major League Baseball, may very likely never be inducted into its Hall of Fame over allegations that he bet on baseball. Perhaps the most salient of these is the infamous "Black Sox Scandal" - featured in the film Eight Men Out, which I highly recommend - in which eight members of the Chicago White Sox collaborated in throwing the 1919 World Series because (as I understand the story) they bet against themselves.

Should we be surprised that people are cheating in these competitions? It's happening everywhere, not just in the sporting world. In Canada, scandals are brewing over Minister of Natural Resources Lisa Raitt's mishandling of Government documents (and her comments over isotope production), and Ontario Minister of Health David Caplan's misappropriation of funds, and former Federal Minister of Transportation John Baird's "fuck you" to the City of Toronto in response to a request for funding (rumour has it Mr. Baird withheld transit funding for the City of Ottawa so that his buddy would win the Mayoral election), and former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and the bag of money. In fact, how does one seek election in the first place? You have to scratch and claw and trample any oncomers (even within your own ranks) for the prize.

Furthermore, how many of us cheat on our taxes? How many of us have cheated on exams and assignments without being caught? How many of us cheat the system in other ways in order to get what we feel is owed us?

My question is, how to we pass judgment on our sports heroes for cheating when we are guilty of the same crime? Moreover - and I thank whomever it was who raised this point, though I do not remember her/his name - who are we to pass judgment when the emphasis is on winning? We have long since abandoned the principles of fairness and goodwill in favour of being number one, so why are we so shocked when certain parties do not play the game fairly?

Wait... is the game even meant to be played fairly?

And just who is behind all this cheating? Would the Black Sox Scandal be entrenched in American folklore had Charlie Comiskey given his players a fair shake, thereby attenuating their desire to screw him and get a little something for themselves in the process? Did the sudden rash of home runs not rekindle interest in baseball, and did the owners not need their star sluggers to give themselves a little extra boost in order to create this buzz? Do national pride and corporate bucks not ride on these athletes of track and field to win, win, win and smash every record in the process? If I am running for office, is the goal not to win the election? so what stops me from pulling whatever strings that need pulling in order to do so?

And what happens when these people are caught? Throw them to the wolves, that's what; make the masses think justice will prevail in the end. Who gives a damn about these people, when newcomers are waiting to take their places in the game? Politicians and professional athletes are as expendable as you and me. Their superiors tell us the whole is tainted by a few "bad apples" when the whole system is rotten to the core.

However, all is not lost - as you know, I attempt to paint that glimmer of hope, faint as it may seem, in each of my yarns of late. Perhaps it's time we deemphasize winning and allow compassion and goodwill to manifest. I learned a valuable lesson as a boy, one that has been reiterated in my adult years: it matters not whether you win or lose, but how you play the game. I realize this is something most of us do not wish to hear, for we must win at all costs, but I ask you, how much do we lose when we seek to win? Many of us have lost careers, reputations and loved ones while seeking a particular triumph; many still have lost our sanity, our scruples, even our dignity, and for what? For how long does a "victory" last? Trophies become scrap metal, and record books turn to mulch.

In my playing days, as I ascended the levels of competitiveness, the fun diminished; the most fun I had was when we didn't keep score, when we played because we loved playing. Perhaps we ought to cease keeping score - goals, points, ratings, whatever measures of "success" we have espoused - and just play.

Mahalo.