Does everyone cheat? What about Squeaky? (Read on for the dirty details at the end.)

The Houston Astros cheated so the team's General Manager and Manager were barred from baseball for one year and subsequently fired. Also barred and fired were three who had moved to other teams but were involved in the cheating scandal.

While baseball does allow base stealing and 'reading' the other teams signs by individual human observance, this effort used barred high tech components to exploit sign stealing of every pitch with great accuracy.., then ironically, using a technique that probably goes back millions of years-- a cave man banging on a resonating surface (i.e. trash can)-- to send a signal to the batter.

Every member, it would seem, of the Houston team was complicit, even if not in agreement. So the team cheated and won the World Series in 2019 with five taking the fall. How do you think all involved had to explain this to their families, their children, their fans when everyone knew.

In Atlanta, the Georgia Department of Public Safety fired 30 state troopers because they all cheated in an on-line exam for the speed detection component required to graduate from trooper school. The class officially became Troopers last August. Of the 33 total number in that class, one quit, one was fired and one is on military leave.

"Every single one of them ended up admitting to cheating and the means by which they cheated," said Public Safety Commissioner Col. Mark McDonough. "It's a punch in the gut. This goes to our very core values."

Subsequently, every traffic ticket issued by any of these individuals was cancelled as an action that demonstrated the value of trust that was broken.

Here is my personal heartbreak of a hero fallen. And yes, I took it very hard.

Lucky Number

Squeaky #23

It all started when I was five. Dad had season basketball tickets and I got to see my all-time favorite player, Number 23, of course, known to everyone as ‘Squeaky.’ He was only 5’8” but he moved through all those bigger bodies on the court like a mouse running through a tea party. “Squeaky”… get it?

Loved him to death but he broke my heart, that bastard! Shaved points… for fifty bucks! Of course, in those days, $50 was like, uh, $60… the schmuck!

So I lived through it… wasn’t easy, but I did. Despite knowing how I should

#23 in action

feel about a fallen star, Squeaky stayed in my heart. Now this was before steroids and performance enhancing drugs. If Squeaky did that today on such a small scale, it might even get lost amidst all this other crap. In fact maybe he would be carried off the court on fans’ shoulders… “Hey, look at that… an 80-year-old that dribbles.”

Heros die hard to a kid.
“Say it ain’t so, Squeaky.

PS: He really was incredible. At 5'8 Eugene 'Squeaky' Melchoirre was an All American for two years and the first overall draft choice of  the NBA Baltimore Bullets. With him, Bradley was the No. 1 rated team in the nation off and on over two years and in 1950-51, lead the Braves to both the NIT and NCAA basketball tournament finals, (playing in both was allowed then and the biggest tournament was the NIT. Both finals were in Madison Square Garden where visiting teams rarely won when playing local favorites) finishing 2nd both times to City College of New York (CCNY). That was where the big time gamblers were busy coercing poorer players that "point shaving wasn't trowing a game and hey, you ain't getting nothing for your efforts and the school is getting rich' took place, banning him and 5 other CCNY players from organized basketball for life. 

Squeaky was so good that when Bradley, then ranked #2 nationally, went to play Adolph Rupp's #1 Kentucky team that year, he fouled out the Blue Demon's famous front line, 6'7, 6'8 and 6'10 players, to win the game of the year.

Sadly, cheating spelled the end of Squeaky's basketball career, but he went forward, accepting his very bad decision, to be a beloved and outstanding citizen, father and grandfather. He died in his home near Chicago this past year at age 92.

I confess, his fire still burns within me for all that he was when I was watching and all that he ultimately turned out to be in redemption.

Nobody likes a cheater... but sometimes, thank goodness, the soul plays a good trick and mends the heart, Some cheaters can redeem and regain trust over time. Life isn't lived in a day, thank goodness.