A Look at Some of the Most Infamous Cheating Scandals
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SATURDAY, JAN. 18, 2020 BUSTED A look at some of the most infamous cheating scandals NOAH TRISTER | Associated Press he fallout from baseball’s latest sign-stealing scandal is beginning to take shape. THouston manager AJ Hinch is out of a job, and so is general manager Jeff Luhnow. The question is what will happen with the Boston Red Sox, who fi red their manager, Spygate Alex Cora, who was on Hinch’s staff in Houston. The New England Patriots have been the NFL’s dominant franchise over the past Before they were fi red, Hinch and Luhnow were suspended for one season by Major two decades, but suspicion has hung over them. New England was fi ned $250,000 League Baseball for the team’s use of electronics to steal signs in 2017 and 2018. The and lost a fi rst-round draft pick in 2007 for violating rules against using video to Astros won the World Series in 2017. Boston won it in 2018 — and the Red Sox are being steal signals. Coach Bill Belichick also was fi ned $500,000. The team later was investigated for their conduct that season. accused of illegally defl ating footballs for the 2015 AFC championship game. Quar- With two recent champions involved, this controversy now takes its place alongside terback Tom Brady was suspended four games and the team was fi ned $1 million some other famous cheating scandals in sports. and docked another fi rst-round pick. Shut down There’s plenty to choose from when it comes to rule breaking in major college sports, but the most severe penalty over the past few decades probably still belongs to SMU football. Boosters funneled thousands of dollars to football players through a slush fund administered by school offi cials. The NCAA gave SMU’s program the “death penalty” — shutting down it for the 1987 season. The school did not fi eld a team in 1988 either. This season was the fi rst time SMU was ranked in the Top 25 since those sanctions. ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTOS Doping Clint Bowyer’s spin near the end of the September 2013 Sprint Cup Series race in Richmond had serious consequences for Michael Waltrip Racing. There are enough drug scandals in sports to form their own list, both at the international level and the major American sports. Russia remains embroiled in an ongoing doping controversy. The International Olym- pic Committee banned Russia from the 2018 Winter Olympics due to evidence of mass cheating four years earlier at the Winter Games in Sochi. Russia more recently received a four-year ban from international sports events, including this year’s Tokyo Olympics. 1951 Giants The sign-stealing scheme heard ’round the world? The New York Giants won the National League pen- nant over Brooklyn in dramatic fashion in 1951 — on a famous home run by Bobby Thomson. But The Wall Street Journal later quoted Hall of Fame outfi elder Monte Irvin, catcher Sal Yvars and pitcher Al Gettel as admitting the Giants stole signs. The Journal said the Giants would spy from their center fi eld clubhouse with a military fi eld scope and relay signals to the bullpen with a buzzer system. Yvars said he relayed signals to hitters. Vijay Singh Giving chase In a 2013 NASCAR race at Richmond, Clint Bowyer ing his spot in the Chase. Jeff Gordon also was added to spun on the closing laps, bringing out a caution and set- the Chase fi eld amid the fallout from NASCAR’s biggest ting in motion a series of events that helped teammate cheating scandal in years. Martin Truex Jr. qualify for the Chase for the Sprint Cup. Several other teams were caught in the controversy and NASCAR penalized Michael Waltrip Racing for manipu- it ultimately led to Michael Waltrip Racing going out of lating the outcome of the race, and Truex ended up los- business. Cutting in Rosie Ruiz fi nished fi rst in the Boston Marathon in 1980, then was stripped of Wrong score her title days later. Ruiz did Vijay Singh was 22 when he was accused of chang- not show up on videotape ing his scorecard in the 1985 Indonesia Open and was or in photographs taken disqualifi ed. Singh said it was a misunderstanding, but along the fi rst 25 miles the head of the Southeast Asia Golf Federation indefi - of the race. Two Harvard nitely suspended him from the Asian Tour. Singh took students came forward to a club pro job in Borneo, eventually made his way back say they saw her join the through a small African tour, the European Tour and race about a mile from the the PGA Tour and put together a distinguished career fi nish. that led to the World Golf Hall of Fame. Rosie Ruiz is helped by Boston police after “winning” Disqualified the women’s division of the Soccer players often are accused of faking injuries, 1980 Boston Marathon. but this was an extreme example. As part of an auda- cious attempt to help Chile in World Cup qualifying, goalie Roberto Rojas fell to the ground bleeding after a fl are was thrown onto the fi eld in a 1989 match at Bra- zil. Chile’s players refused to continue playing, but a photographer caught Rojas sneaking a razor from one of his gloves and cutting his own head. Chile missed out on the 1990 World Cup and was banned from the 1994 edition..