Baseball ethics

Go check out "Ranking baseball’s ethical transgressions," a description of a recent Willy Stern class at Carlton College.

Then go rank the hundred-odd real-life baseball scenarios yourself.

Which was worse—the murder of minor-league ump Samuel White in 1899 by a player who didn’t like one of the ump’s calls and smashed the poor man over the head with his bat, or the decision to exclude African-Americans from organized baseball for decades?

What about the catcher who heaved a potato (that looked like a ball) into left field in a seemingly failed effort to pick off the runner at third, only to tag the runner out with the real ball when he trotted home?