You must win and cover the spread too.
Oakland Tribune writer (and father of my bride) Art Spander writes in a column titled, "Great sin of losin' fuels cheatin'":
Sports are supposed to be balancing influences in our wavering lives, governed by exacting rules...We're moved by the scene in "Field of Dreams," when James Earl Jones thunders about the game, "it reminds of what was good and that could be good again." Like the Black Sox Scandal? Like John McGraw grabbing runners belts from the third-base coaches' box? Like members of the New York Giants peering through a telescope from center field in the old Polo Grounds to steal signs?
An athlete always will look for an edge or ways to keep others from finding that edge. When some golfers first switched from wood drivers to metal, it was inevitable all would switch. They dare not fall victim to technology. It was another sort of technology, a chemical one, ballplayers believed was necessary. A year ago, Hank Aaron, discussing the steroid rumors, said in his days, the 1960s and '70s, the drug wasn't in clubhouses. "So I never used it," he explained. "Now, if the guy next to me was using it, I might have been tempted."
All this reminds me of an old cartoon where a father attaches a large metal spike to his little boy's football helmet and says, "Son, I'd rather you win and cheat than play by the rules and suck."
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