Cheating Persuasive Essay

There has never been and will never be a serious debate over who the second greatest athlete of all time is. This is because in society second place is not good enough it represents someone who did not win and no one idolizes a loser. A loser is lost in the shuffle and will never be remembered by the average sports fan. For this and many other reasons athletes will do just about anything in their power to be considered a winner, even if that means cheating. Cheating is displayed in every sport on every level and is performed by an athlete in an attempt to gain an advantage over the competition and ultimately win. Cheating comes in many shapes and sizes and can be as harmless as changing a score card in golf to as serious as ending your life for an upper hand on the playing field.

It is quite disturbing what some athlete would do in order to be considered a winner and in a famed survey that asked Olympians whether they would rather win a gold medal and die within 10 years or go on for the rest of their life and not win gold. Eighty percent of those surveyed said they 'd rather win the gold and die (Drehs). This
shows that a lot of Olympic athletes believe winning is the most important thing in their life and would go to great lengths to achieve it. While these Olympians only spoke of shortening their lives in hopes to achieve victory there have been a few athletes who have actually ended their lives for an opportunity to be a winner.

Performance enhancing drugs are one thing that athletes in todays world use to gain the upper hand on the competition. It may be true that the consistent use of performance enhancing drugs will ultimately make an athlete better, but has life threatening side effects. This is evident in not only the main sports here in the United States, but also around the globe. For example cyclist Tom Simpson got so hopped-up on speed (and cognac) that he keeled over and died during a Tour stage (Gifford). This shows that cheating is a desperate attempt to win and that even death will not persuade athletes to play by all the rules.

While steroids and death are a very extreme forms of cheating there are many other ways that professionals cheat. Take for example a punter in football who will pretend to get knocked on his ass when his leg is in the air in hopes to draw a personal foul penalty or in a basketball game when a defender is trying to draw a charge, he will fall back at the slightest contact like he was in the stomach by a cannon (Bernstein 164). These both show ways of cheating which are less extreme than steroids and are such common place in todays world that players who exploit these loop holes in the system get praise from fans for proper execution. While football and basketball have some cheaters there is no sport with more cheaters than Americas pastime, baseball.

Baseball in the 21st century is a game of strategy and one with many rules, but it has not always been this organized and there was a point where the game had few rules and left a lot of room for innovation and cheating.
In the 1890s a man by the name of John McGraw and his Baltimore Orioles decided to capitalize on the thin rule book baseball operated on. This team changed the rule book many times because of their uncanny ability to find a loop hole in the system. One way they would cheat was their habit of cutting bases when the umpire wasnt looking (running from first to third or second to home) (Zumsteg 7). This ended up causing a rule change that said runners must touch all bases in order and reverse order if they had to return (Zumsteg 7). These athletes show that even sports figures of yesterday were cheaters and did it all in the hopes to be
winners.

Some baseball players rely on their cheating to perform at the highest level. One such cheater was Whitey Ford who had a rich repertoire of techniques for cheating (Will 99). One method Ford was use to was scuffing the ball with a sharp ring he wore and when this cheating aid was banned he brought His cooperative catcher, Elston Howard, who would scuff the ball on a sharpened rivet on his shin guards (Will 99). People will always wonder if Whitey Ford decided not cheat at all would have still had over 200 wins. For all the pitchers who cheat there are just as many hitters who bend, break, and shatter the rules that batters are suppose to follow.

The most well known form of cheating for hitters is using a corked bat. A corked bat is made when someone drills into the barrel and then replaces the wood with something lighter, such as rubber balls, epoxy, or cork (Bernstein 166). The theory behind this method of cheating is to gain bat speed due to a lighter bat. This cheating technique worked very well for one hitter by the name of Norm Cash. It turns out that Cash admitted to using a corked bat during the 1961 season, in which he led the AL in batting with a .361 average (Bernstein 166). Cash and many other batters have cheated their way to victory.

From the cycling paths to the baseball diamond cheating can be seen in all different forms. Sometimes it is a cyclist wanting a little more endurance other times a baseball player wanting a ball with some scuff marks. No matter how athletes cheat they will always be cheating to win. All athletes realize it is a winners world out there and losers will be forgotten like an old pair of broken cleats. In a game where many are forgotten the winners will always remain in the hearts of the fans and the athlete of yesterday and today realize the quickest way to someones heart is by cheating.

Works CitedBernstein, Ross. The code. Chicago, IL: Triumph books, 2008. 164, 166Drehs, Wayne. "Are sports heading toward 'major crash ' because of cheating?" ESPN.com. 09 Aug. 2007. 29 Nov. 2008 .

Gifford, Bill. "Cheating Athletes." Slate magazine. 10 Dec. 2004. 29 Nov. 2008 .

Will, George F. Men at work. New york, NY: Macmillan publishing company, 1990. 99.

Zumsteg, Derek. The cheater 's guide to baseball. New york, NY: Houghton mifflin company, 2007. 5