Thursday, September 07, 2006

Raskolnikov and his mouse

There's this guy in my fantasy baseball league. He started out as just one of the owners, then became the acting commissioner when the commissioner would be on vacation or otherwise unavailable to perform his duties. This year he is the co-commissioner. There never was an attempt to seek consensus among the other owners. It just happened. In itself it's really not a big deal. It's not even a little deal. He does host the draft and provide the food for all of us. Last year, using his position, he approved a trade ahead of the voting deadline, that had been objected to by at least two other owners. It would not have been an issue, except that he was one of the parties involved in the trade. The commissioner rolled his eyes and had a talk with him. Something about ethics I hope. Then, on April 9 of this year, he made a roster move after the daily transaction deadline. How? He used the commissioner's password access. He cheated! The pitcher he activated went on to throw a gem of a game. Well, transactions performed with the commissioner's password show up in red. One need only browse through a few screens of names and positions. What should I have done? I mulled my options for a couple weeks and finally settled on bringing it to the commissioner's attention. Eyes were rolled, again. He would have a talk, again, with the co-commissioner. I can only assume that the conversation took place, but nothing has been posted to the league's message board. Such as an apology and a promise to never do anything like it again. When he pointed his mouse and clicked, was he thinking "I can get away with this."? Or maybe, "No one will notice." Well, someone did. And someone has let several of the other owners in on the transgression. We are still waiting to see what, if anything will be done. My guess, if forced to hazard one, would be that at the end of the season, the statistics will be evaluated to see if the final outcome would have been different had the co-commissioner not cheated. They may not alter the final standings. No harm, no foul. A victimless crime, not worthy of prosecution. It is not prosecution that I, and other owners want. It is an apology. A simple "I'm sorry. It won't happen again." Not rationalization that the particular game in question hadn't started. Other owners do not have that access. Rules are rules, and despite my anarchist tendencies, fantasy baseball rules are sacred. But who am I kidding? This is really just symptomatic of the moral and ethical decay we face in our society, particularly among those in positions of trust and power, whether elected fairly or not. The cover-up worthy of Haldeman and Ehrlichman. But the illegal transaction might affect the final standings. Then what?

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