Sports Scandals

by Laura Finley; Jeffrey J. Fountain Peter Finley

  Webber initially maintained that he had never received money from Martin and testifled that was the case before a federal grand jury. He and his father and aunt were all indicted in 2002 for perjury and obstruction of justice for lying about the money and gifts they received from Martin. The federal case was dealt a blow when Martin died in February 2003. Charges against Webber's father and aunt were dropped when prosecutors said they could not sustain them without Martin's testimony. Facing a trial and possibly from three to ten years in prison if convicted, Webber pleaded guilty in July 2003 to criminal contempt for lying to a federal grand jury. He was sentenced to 300 hours of community service, which he fulfilled by reading to children, and a $100,000 fine.32 Prosecutors had agreed that incarceration was not appropriate in the case and sought a sizable fine instead. Webber was also suspended for three games by the NBA.

  In light of Webber's guilty plea, which included admitting to receiving money while in high school at Detroit Country Day, the Michigan High School Athletic Association asked the school to forfeit all of its games in which Webber had played, including state championships in 1989, 1990, and 1991. School administrators at Country Day said that they would not give back the state titles or the trophies.

  In an interview with the Associated Press, Webber said of the Fab Five, ''You can't think of Michigan without thinking about us.''33 While that is true, it does not reflect what many think about him and the shame he heaped upon the school. Tom Yeager, speaking on behalf of the NCAA, said of the scandal, ''This is one of the most egregious violations of NCAA laws in the history of the organization. In fact, the reputation of the university, the student-athletes and the coach as a result of the basketball team's accomplishments from 1992 through 1998 were a sham.''34 Webber's teammate, Jalen Rose, claimed that the removal of banners and wiping victories from the books would not change whether the team would be remembered. ''The one thing about being famous is people forget about you. One thing about infamy, people have to remember you,'' he said. ''And because of that, at the end of the day, what we brought to the game can never be taken away. So we'll never be forgotten.''35

  ZAMBOANGA CITY STEALS 1992 LITTLE LEAGUE WORLD SERIES

  In 1992 a Little League baseball team representing Zamboanga City, Philippines, claimed the forty-sixth Little League World Series title with a 15-4 win over Long Beach, California, in the final played in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Shamefully, Zamboanga's victory would be short-lived, as a Filipino newspaper revealed that the team was loaded with ineligible players.

  Following up on the stories printed in the Philippines, Little League officials determined that eight of the players, beginning during the Far East Regional Series, had been recruited from around the country and put in place of the players who had won at the national level. Some of the replacement players, coming from as far as 700 miles away, did not even speak the most common language spoken in Zamboanga. Little League rules stipulate that all players must have competed in the Little League for the district they represent.

  To make matters worse, the Philippine Daily Inquirer reported that the six players who were truly from Zamboanga were all over-aged imposters, with two of them being fifteen-year-old sophomores in high school. The age limit for Little League participation is twelve. The over-age players adopted the identities of younger players, including cousins and younger brothers. Even their parents joined in the charade. They pretended to be the parents of the players their sons pretended to be.

  Eduardo Toribio, who had coached the team to victory in the National Baseball Open, claimed that Manila officials reneged on an agreement that the winner of that tournament would represent the country in the Far East leg of the World Series. He said that the Philippine Sports Commission handpicked the replacement players and, eventually, pushed him out as coach just prior to the championship game. According to Toribio, by the time the team arrived for the final, not even the coaches were from Zamboanga City.

  The day after the final game was ruled to be a forfeit, giving the title to Long Beach, California, the top Little League official in the Philippines, Armando Andaya, resigned in protest. He claimed the replacements were made for ''justifiable reasons,'' but failed to elaborate. He maintained that all the players were eleven and twelve years old.36

  In spite of the scandal, the directors of Little League baseball declined to impose restrictions on teams from the Philippines in the future. According to Luke LaPorta, then the Little League chairman, all teams have to apply for a new charter each year and there would be no restrictions on Filipino teams.

  He said, ''The program is for kids and they didn't do it.''37 The significance of this case is that cheating in sports is so pervasive it has even impacted youth sports. Additionally, the case highlights some of the problems when adults get too involved in activities that are designed for youth.

  THE THEFT OF ALBERT BELLE'S CORKED BAT

  Albert Belle was having a terrific season in 1994, ultimately posting an outstanding .357 batting average and losing the Major League's batting title by only the narrowest of margins (to Paul O'Neill's .359). His season, however, took a brief setback when he was caught with a corked bat. A teammate then stole the bat out of the umpires' dressing room in a daring scheme worthy of an episode of Mission Impossible.

  The scandal began when Belle and his Cleveland Indians team was on the road to play the Chicago White Sox. Gene Lamont, the White Sox manager, asked the umpires to confiscate Belle's bat because he suspected it was corked (a process that fills the interior of the bat with cork, which produces more powerful hits of the ball). The umpires complied and locked the bat away in their locker room. During the game the bat was stolen and replaced with another.

  Teammate Jason Grimsley would later admit to being the man with sufficient moxie to infiltrate the umpires' locker room to retrieve the bat, which he knew was corked. His plan began with a ground-level survey of the many offices in Comiskey Park, from which he drew a mental blueprint of the facility.

  He then climbed into the ductwork above the ceiling of the visitor's lockerroom, flashlight in hand, and made his way through the three-foot-high crawl space. His plan almost ended prematurely when, thinking he was above the umpires’ dressing room, he lifted a ceiling tile to find he was above the groundskeepers' room and the groundskeepers were in it! Finding the correct room, he lowered himself down and switched bats.

  Unfortunately for the Indians, the switch did not go undetected. Umpire Dave Phillips had photographed the bat prior to locking it away, and he was not amused. He called a press conference the next day to announce the theft of the bat and to demand its immediate return. Security officials even dusted the room for fingerprints and, in the course of their investigation, found the flashlight that Grimsley had left behind.38 The Indians' management handed over a bat they claimed was Belle's, but further review of the photographs revealed that, this too, was an imposter. Finally, Belle's bat was given back to be inspected. The bat was sawed in half, revealing that it contained an insert of cork. Belle was initially suspended for ten games. The suspension was appealed and reduced to seven games over a six-day period.

  LaMont's questioning of Belle's bat begged the question: How did the White Sox know that the bat was corked? The Cleveland Indians claimed that the White Sox used an X-ray machine to scan all of the Indians' bats after the equipment truck dropped them off at Comiskey Park. The White Sox denied that was the case. LaMont simply claimed, ''We heard some things.''39

  One possible source for the ''things'' that LaMont heard could have been pitcher Steve Farr, who had pitched for Cleveland earlier in that same season before moving on to Boston. He told the Los Angeles Times, ''They had a private woodworking shop in Cleveland. So what happened with Belle didn't surprise me. That stuff had been going on since I was with Cleveland ten years ago. I mean, just a few weeks ago [when Farr was with Cleveland], a guy grabbed someone's bat during batting practice and when his bat broke, cork went everywhere. And that was right in front
of the visiting manager.''40 An American League source later claimed that there was no secret informant, and that Belle gave himself away when he was overheard discussing his secret in the clubhouse at the All-Star Game at Three Rivers Stadium.

  Although the White Sox claimed that there was no use of an X-ray machine in this case, using one to examine the competitors' bats is not without precedent. Whitey Herzog, former manager of the St. Louis Cardinals, admitted that his team did exactly that to the visiting New York Mets in 1987. According to Herzog, ''We had an X-ray machine at Busch Stadium. When the Mets came into town, we decided to check their bats. We found four of those SOBs using corked bats.''41

  Herzog believed corked bats were rampant in Major League Baseball in that era. He said, ''If they really want to stop all this crap, they should have a scanner by the bat rack. I'm telling you, if you checked everybody in baseball, you'd have a whole room full of corked bats. Believe me, the way the ball is flying out this year, you'd be stupid not to check some of these guys. This has been going on for years, but everybody has been talking so much about the ball being juiced, they forget some of these bats are juiced too.''42

  Ironically, Belle found himself in a White Sox uniform only a few years later. After inking a five-year, $52.5 million deal with the team, he was asked about the incident. He replied, ''A situation occurred at the end of the season where I think I bumped my head and had amnesia.''43 Beyond the fact that the case demonstrates the asinine activities in which some will partake to win a game, it also is indicative of what went on to be a major issue in baseball-corking of bats.

  FSU-FREE SHOES UNIVERSITY

  For Florida State University (FSU), a trip to Foot Locker enjoyed by several football players would prove to be more expensive than the players imagined.

  In summer 1994 Sports Illustrated broke the story that agents were trying to secure their relationships with FSU players by offering incentives in the form of cash and gifts, which included a $6,000 trip to Foot Locker for shoes, sweat suits, and sportswear. Raul Bey, a Las Vegas sports agent, flipped the bill for the trip that was also arranged by Paul Williams, a former Tallahassee high school football coach, and Nate Cebrun, also a Las Vegas sports agent.

  For seven months, at a cost to FSU of $400,000, outside investigators hired by the university queried how exactly it was that FSU players were receiving such handsome treatment from boosters and would-be agents and exactly who knew what and when. The finding was that in 1993 FSU players violated myriad NCAA regulations by pocketing cash and gifts, but that the coaching staff and school officials committed no wrongdoing. The final report, however, did claim that the problems could have been averted had FSU officials maintained greater oversight. The report claimed, ''FSU's coaches and athletics administrators must learn from this case and must make themselves even more sensitive than they were to even the most remote signs or vague rumors of agent activity in and around their program.''44 The investigators refuted the claim made by Sports Illustrated that FSU compliance officer Brian Mand was informed of the shopping spree soon after it took place. Just as importantly, the report exonerated linebacker coach Jim Gladden who had been directly implicated as a person with knowledge of the gifts by a former FSU player.

  The investigation revealed other illicit benefits to FSU football players, including the offer of free housing from Rick Blankenship, a 1971 graduate and booster. Blankenship was banished from the boosters club by the FSU president. He commented, ''I understand President D'Alemberte's position.

  He has a responsibility to comply with NCAA rules and regulations. Our objectives are the same. We cannot take the same path to them, however.''45

  To lighten, and perhaps avoid altogether, possible NCAA sanctions, FSU punished itself by suspending the offending players from some early season games during the 1994 campaign. In spite of suspending the players, FSU, the defending national champions and a perennial power in the early 1990s, won its first four games by an average score of 45-17. The suspensions, while having no effect on the games, kept FSU in the good graces of the NCAA, which would allow the school to emerge from the scandal essentially unscathed. Virtually the only meaningful punishment for FSU was enduring a few years of recruiting during which prospects wondered if the program would be sanctioned, perhaps through the loss of the right to participate in a bowl game. Several men were arrested in relation to the activities on the FSU campus.

  Each was charged with violation of the state's agent registration law. Acting as an agent without registering was a third-degree felony punishable by a maximum of five years in prison. Sentences, however, were light and included a few weeks in jail, probation, and small monetary fines.

  The incident would prove to be powerful fuel to the fire of the historic rivalry between Florida State University and the University of Florida. Speaking at the Polk County Gator Club in 1994, Florida head football coach Steve Spurrier asked the crowd of Gators fans, ''You know what FSU stands for, don't you? Free Shoes University.'' Spurrier was entering his fifth season coaching the Gators, and national publications had ranked his team lower in the annual recruiting battle with FSU in four of the five seasons. Asked to explain his comments the next day, he didn't back off: ''We've always heard rumors about them. We've always suspected,'' Spurrier said. ''Heck, maybe they're the greatest recruiters in the world. But maybe there are other reasons that those guys go there. Those guys always say they feel 'more comfortable' going to FSU. Well, maybe we're starting to realize what 'more comfortable' means.''46 By the beginning of practice for the 1994 season, Spurrier was prepared to roll out a new joke: ''It used to be that I was the most hated Gator in Tallahassee.

  Now it's the investi-gator!''47 Florida State coach Bobby Bowden responded, ''The shoes were free, but we've paid a heckuva price for it. So Steve's halfway right.''48

  THE RECRUITMENT OF ALBERT MEANS

  As a high school football player, Albert Means was among the best. Several publications called him the best defensive lineman in the country in 1999. He was named to the All-America teams by Parade, SuperPrep, and USA Today. He was strong, fast, and big, at six-foot-four and 340 pounds. He was also for sale to the highest bidder, as his high school coach betrayed his trust and auctioned him off to the college that was willing to pay the most for his services.

  In the end, the going rate for the superstar player would be $200,000-and an Alabama booster was willing to pay.

  Means was a coach's dream: a once-in-a-lifetime defensive blue chipper. He was the kind of player that could ensure job security for a college coach. Thus, the bidding for Albert Means began in 1999 when he and his mother turned over the responsibility of choosing the college Means would attend to his high school coach, Lynn Lang. Unbeknownst to Means, Lang immediately saw dollar signs and pursued them. He asked a University of Tennessee coach for two vehicles, $50,000 to $75,000 in cash, and a house in exchange for persuading Means to become a Volunteer. Lang then successfully played several universities against each other. A University of Alabama assistant coach reportedly referred Lang to a prominent and wealthy booster, Logan Young, the former owner of the United States Football League's Memphis Showboats. It was through Young that the payments, which were to total $200,000, began. Young worked through a middleman to deliver money to the coach, and, just like that, Means had been sold to the Crimson Tide.

  Ultimately, Lang's greed was his downfall. While he would drive to practice in his $37,000 Ford Explorer (Eddie Bauer model) and brag about the size of his score, he cut his assistant coach, Milton Kirk, out of the deal. Kirk would later blow the whistle. He claimed he did it not out of vindictiveness, but out of concern for Means. ''Here's a kid that had done everything we asked him to do and then here's a grown person who's going to take advantage of a kid who's already coming from a disadvantaged situation. I couldn't live with that,'' Kirk said.49 There was no question, however, that Kirk intended to gain financially from the scheme and blew the whistle when it was clear that Lang was putting him off.
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  In the fallout that followed, the NCAA placed the University of Alabama on probation for five years, which included the loss of twenty-one football scholarships over three years, and a two-year ban from bowl appearances. Lang pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy for accepting a total of $150,000 and cooperated with prosecutors in the case against booster Logan Young.50

  During Lang's testimony, he indicated that eight schools offered to buy Means’s services, including Memphis, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Michigan State. Three schools (Alabama, Georgia, and Kentucky) actually handed out money. Lang also testifled that Means had never passed the ACT that made him eligible to play at Alabama. Rather, an imposter had taken the test under his name. Lang was sentenced to two years probation and 500 hours of community service. Similarly, Kirk entered a guilty plea to a conspiracy charge and was sentenced to three years probation and 200 hours of community service.

  Logan Young was convicted in February 2005 on charges of conspiracy to commit racketeering, crossing state lines to commit racketeering, and arranging bank withdrawals to cover up a crime. He was sentenced to six months in prison, followed by six months of home confinement. He was free pending an appeal when he died at home in 2006, just over a year after being convicted.

  Many speculated, and media outlets even reported, that he had been murdered, possibly in connection to the scandal. Those stories were false. Investigators determined that he died from a fall down the stairs, during which he struck his head on an iron railing. As he stumbled around the house, he left a terrible and bloody scene that led to the early speculation of foul play.