Near the end of his life, Rogers Hornsby published an article in a men's magazine titled “You've Got to Cheat to Win in Baseball.” Hornsby wrote, “I've been in pro baseball since 1914 and I've cheated, or watched someone on my team cheat, in practically every game. You've got to cheat.” Hornsby's confession was not a complete surprise. Revered as one of baseball's supreme hitters, he was also reputedly meaner than Ty Cobb, and absolutely devoted to winning at all costs. But Hornsby was not the only confessed cheater among the all-time greats, some with more likable reputations. Hank Greenberg described a season when he was managed by an expert sign-stealer. “I loved that. I was the greatest hitter in the world when I knew what kind of pitch was coming up.”

It is a truth universally acknowledged that in matters of supreme importance people cheat. Baseball matters; you might say the rest follows. Today, when we talk about cheating in baseball, we automatically think of steroids, but it's important to understand that cheating is bigger than steroids, and in fact, as Thomas Boswell writes, cheating is baseball's oldest profession. Even performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) have a venerable history. Pud Galvin, one of the nineteenth century's greatest pitchers, downed an elixir of monkey testosterone before an 1889 game against Boston. Galvin won and drew a favorable comment from the Washington Post: “If there still be doubting Thomases who concede no virtue of the elixir, they are respectfully referred to Galvin's record in yesterday's Boston–Pittsburgh game. It is the best proof yet furnished of the value of the discovery.”