I know what you are all thinking. "Oh no, another argument about the cheating in the 2020 election." Honestly the election is not what brought this idea to my mind. I might touch on the election later on because I do have a lot of questions about voting irregularities in certain parts of the country but I am prepared to believe that this country has a strong enough Constitution to continue on.
This is what started my mind thinking about cheating and how widespread it is in our everyday lives. It was a short documentary I saw on YouTube about the 1973 Soap Box Derby in Akron, Ohio. The Soap Box Derby began in 1935. The Derby gives children across the country a chance to compete in a home made racing car the runs on the power of gravity. It is a chance for child to be exposed to engineering with the use of mathematics and physics to build the fastest car to get down a hill. Every year the National Derby is held in Akron with winners from cities across the country competing for the title of champion.
The Derby is one of those sports that as the years went by was considered to be true competition based in fairness and good sportsmanship. As the years have progressed the rules have grown to make sure that all the cars and drivers are playing on a level playing field. The car was to built by the driver and adult worse prohibited from building the car. Adults could be advisors to the creation of the car, but the work was to be done by the kids. It was always considered one of the most innocent of competitions that existed. The Soap Box Derby stood for honesty, fairness, and basically scandal free. At least it did until that summer day in 1973.
Jimmy Gronen won the Boulder, Colorado Derby that year. He was 14 years old and had a very efficient car. His cousin, Bobby Lange, had won the national championship in 1972 and now it was Jimmy's turn. As the national Derby started and continued, no of the other cars came close to beating the car from Colorado. Jimmy won the Derby and received the trophy, US Savings bonds and the fame of being the Champion.
It seemed unusual that one car would be so far advanced past the average Soap Box Derby car. An investigation was begun and the results of that investigation would almost make the Derby shut down. The investigation of the car found that Jimmy's car had an electromagnet in the nose of the car. Under the foam of the headrest in the car was a small push button switch. The switch was connected to a battery hidden in the back of the car. When Jimmy got in the car, his head would depress the switch, closing the circuit from the battery to the magnet in the nose creating a magnetic field strong enough to attract the car to the metal flap on the starting ramp so that when the flap fell forward to let the car start to roll down the hill, the flap would actually pull Jimmy's car down the ramp giving him quite an advantage from the start.
As it turned out, Jimmy's uncle did quite a bit of the creation of the car. Jimmy's uncle, Robert Lange was charged with aiding to the delinquency of a minor among other minor things. Jimmy was stripped of his title and the Derby barely survived. Now the cars are built from purchased kits that cannot be altered in anyway. The rules are almost so tight that any imagination that a kid may have for a car is squashed. The race is hardly reported on anymore. I had to google to find out if it was still an event in Kansas City. Turns out it is although it became a victim of CoVID-19 this past summer.
After watching this documentary I started thinking about cheating. Is our competitive so strong that even a 14 year old would agree with the suggestion of his uncle to cheat other kids out of a trophy? The answer apparently is, yes. We cheat at almost anything we can think of or feel we can get away with.
The first thing that entered my mind was Major League Baseball. The all American sport. The sport that fills ball fields across the country with people of almost any age. I love baseball. I was raised on baseball. I spent whole summers playing baseball and going to games at Municipal Stadium everytime the A's or The Royals were in town. My childhood heroes were baseball players. just as they were for my dad. I do not remember any ball players being caught cheating in baseball, but I could be wrong. But look at baseball closely. How many times have we seen a bat break when making contact with the pitch and suddenly there is cork out on the grass in front of home plate and the remains of the bat reveal a drilled out core where the cork had once resided. The cork is said to lighten the bat and give the wood of the bat a little more flexible to spring the baseball away at a faster rate than solid wood.
I have seen umpires called out to the mound to check a pitcher's hat, his fingers, his pockets and his glove to look for foreign substances that help put a different spin on the ball and makes the pitch go in all different directions and speeds. I have seen pitchers kicked out of games for this.
Then we entered the enhancement drug scandals. Suddenly some players bodies were bulking up to be almost cartoon looking. Homerun records fell at an incredible rate. Suddenly the record set by Roger Maris in 1961 of 61 homers was being surpassed easily by these bulked up athletes. It had taken Roger Maris almost 30 years and hitting behind Mickey Mantle in the lineup to break Babe Ruth's record and now 40 years after Maris set that record, it seemed like the record was virtually up for grabs. It came down to one season when two players, Mark McGuire and Sammy Sosa easily passed the record and began race to the end of the season on which one would end up with the most dingers. It seems like the MLB has finally gotten some control over the performance enhancing drugs with the last noticeable player whose reputation was in question was Barry Bonds. We no longer see these monster bodies that show up over the off season out of nowhere. The thing is though, how do we measure the greatest players of all time now? We can not be sure of any record set with a bat is legitimate.
The latest cheating scandal to rock MLB is the Houston Astros sign stealing that propelled them to a World Series championship.
It isn't just baseball of course. Boxing has always been under the microscope of cheating. Whether it be adding a substance inside the gloves ot downright throwing the fight and losing intentionally.
Probably the worst scenario of cheating to most people would be horse racing. The things that some trainers or owners have done to these horses for a win is despicable. Horses can be permanently injured or damaged from some of these practices.
Cheating of course spreads far from the sports world onto almost every part of society and life. It penetrates the stock market making some a little richer while doing who knows how much damage to companies or the economy. Cheating on school tests, from middle school to college is surely taking place on an ongoing basis.
I have seen videos documenting where Chess Masters playing in tournaments on the world stage have been caught or accused of cheating. Technology today allows them to have access to computer engines advising them of the best move to make. It kind of makes Spasky and Fischer a little more impressive when watching their matches from the 70's.
Of course world wide, countries cheat on their agreements that are carefully negotiated to maintain an advantage from an economic or military stance.
Religious leaders are constantly being caught cheating, either with finances or just pure lying to get ahead. This has been going on since the idea of religion was conceived thousands of years ago.
Have I cheated? Oh yes, I can remember a few times when I did and in a not very good way. But I can also recall times when I chose not to cheat when I could have. I think that is where all of stand for the most part. We cheat. But not on a consistent basis. Cheating for the vast majority of us is not part of our life style. Most of the time we cheat thinking it isn't REALLY cheating, it is just finding a little advantage to get ahead in our endeavors. Sometimes cheating feels like it is a necessity, a means to an end. An end that we think is not only desirable, but critical to achieve.
What bothered me about the 1973 Soap Box Derby was the idea of adults telling kids it is okay to cheat in an event that has a reputation of fairness and gamesmanship. The result is that the Derby was forced to take away the creativity of kids as they participate.
Survival of the fittest. I feel like that is what it comes down to.
Being human is not always pretty. The only thing we can do as individuals is to take a look at ourselves and find those things that are not so pretty and take steps to fix it. We must continue to try to make improvements in ourselves and maybe, just maybe we can set an example for future generations that lessen some of these faults that we all have.
