“Boy, I’m glad Wainwright threw me a pitch a Little Leaguer could hit, because I’m just about done. I sure hope he tells everyone about it,..”

St. Louis Cardinals pitching ace Adam Wainwright lost MLB’s 2014 All-Star Game for the National League (though he was not the official losing pitcher). He gave up three quick runs in the first inning, and his squad never overcame the deficit, losing 5-3. As a result, his league’s champion at the end of the season, which could conceivably be his own team, will labor at a disadvantage: the league that wins the All-Star game get the home advantage, which recently, at least, has been decisive.

None of that reflects poorly on the pitcher. He got hit hard by a group of likely Hall of Famers (Derek Jeter, Mike Trout, Robinson Cano and Miguel Cabrera) in an exhibition game that doesn’t count in the standings. So what?

This, however, does reflect poorly on Wainwright:

The game began with a long ovation for AL lead-off batter Derek Jeter, the Yankee shortstop who is retiring after this season following a storied career. Wainwright, in what appeared to be a class move, placed his glove and the ball on the mound in Minnesota’s Target Field and  stepped off to applaud, becoming, for a moment, just another fan giving a well-earned tribute to an all-time great. Then, three pitches into Jeter’s at bat, the living legend lined a ringing double to right field as if scripted, giving the crowd another chance to cheer, and triggering the American League’s winning rally. Later, in the dugout being interviewed on live TV, Wainwright announced that he had given Jeter “a couple of pipe shots”—that is, grooved his pitches so Jeter could get a hit.

Horrible. This is wrong in every way, no matter how you turn it—poor sportsmanship, disrespectful to Jeter, damaging to the game, and dumb:

• Baseball, even the All-Star Game, isn’t pro wrestling. The fans presume that the game is on the level, and being played with competitive fire, and there once was never any doubt that this was the case. Around the time the players became millionaires and behaved as if they were doing the fans a favor by even showing up, the competitive legitimacy of the game was eroded, reaching its nadir in the 2002  game where both managers appeared more interested in letting all of their prima donnas play than winning, resulting in an extra-inning tie because nobody was left who could pitch. Thus the Lords of Baseball made the (much derided) decision to make the game “count” by letting its outcome determine the World Series home field advantage. A starting pitcher whose lousy performance sends his team to a loss announcing that he was trying to give up hits—it doesn’t matter to whom or why—undermines the integrity, reputation and legitimacy of the All-Star Game itself.

• If this was supposed to be a gesture of respect to Jeter, a follow-though to Wainwright’s glove and ball display, it was completely destroyed by Wainwright’s announcing it to the world. Is he so stupid that he can’t see that? Everyone is talking about the classy Yankee captain, forty years young and still able to rise to the occasion even against the best of the National League, and Wainwright says, “Well, actually it was a batting practice pitch. Because I respect him so much! ” If you respect him, treat him as if he can hit your best pitch, ass. If you respect him, don’t diminish his dramatic moment by taking credit for it yourself, jerk.

• Then there is the disgusting possibility that Wainwright was lying, and that he was trying to simultaneously look magnanimous while deflecting the inevitable criticism over the disastrous results of his pitching. This would be the worst of all. And yet, incredibly, this is what Wainwright decided was the best spin he could put on his irresponsible, harmful and disrespectful comments. When the predictable uproar over his “pipe shots” line began to swell, Wainwright tried to recant, saying that he was “joking.” As in “lying.” Did you hear anyone laughing, Adam?

This is the rare damaging statement that cannot be undone, nor will any apology suffice.

Baseball has been around for about 15o years now, and while something new seems to happen every day (one of the joys of the game), this fiasco isn’t unprecedented. When another great shortstop, Baltimore’s Cal Ripken, played in his last All-Star Game, the pitcher who gave up his dramatic home run later intimated that the pitch had been grooved. The sheen on Mickey Mantle’s final home run in his last season in 1968 was reduced to a glimmer by the revelation that pitcher Denny McLain had made certain that Mantle knew exactly where a medium-speed fastball would be thrown. Mickey was reportedly grateful, but neither he nor McClain (who ended up in Federal prison at one point) were towering intellects blessed with ethical perception.

I have long believed that statements like Wainwright’s, true or false, should result in fines and suspensions. It is cheating, but worse: it is the equivalent of point-shaving in basketball. At very least, Adam Wainwright should never be invited to another All-Star Game.

UPDATE: A belayed Kaboom! for Sirius-XM MLB commentators Jeff Joyce and Mike Stanton spew the worst series of rationalizations for Wainwright imaginable:

• “Hey, remember that All- Star game when Justin Verlander gave up 5 runs in the first and said he was just trying to light up the radar gun? He didn’t get that much criticism…” Well, he should have. And he didn’t make that excuse when it undermined a great player’s last All-Star hurrah.
• “Verlander said that he was trying to entertain the fans. He’s right. It’s for entertainment! The fans want to see him throw 100 mph!” That’s garbage. The fans want to see great players play great baseball, not stink up the joint doing what they would never do in a real game.
• “Wainwright didn’t make a big deal about saying Jeter got a grooved pitch…he just answered a question.” Yes, he just answered a question offensively and stupidly, and spoiled a great baseball moment, for Jeter and the game.

Boy, baseball commentators are clueless about ethics. It’s remarkable.

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Sources: USA Today, Hardball Times

Graphic: WJLA