Fort Myers Mighty Mussels Player Cut For Allegedly Helping Opponents (Photo by Isaiah Vazquez/Getty Images)
A player for the Fort Myers Mighty Mussels has been cut for allegedly helping opponents! He's been accused of tipping pitches to help the other team know what's coming!
Baseball is a guessing game. If you think a fast ball is coming and you're given a curve, it can throw off your timing. It's part of what makes the sport so difficult. However, if you know what pitch is coming you're much more likely to get a hit. Now, a player for the Fort Myers Mighty Mussels has been cut after it's believed he told the other team what pitches were coming!
Did A Fort Myers Mighty Mussels Player Tip Pitches?
Cheating is nothing new in baseball. It's been happening since the game has been around. There was the famous Black Sox fixing scandal, steroids, and more recently the Houston Astros cheating scandal. In that one, the team was accused of using cameras to know what pitches were about to be thrown to help their batters. It became a very messy ordeal.
What you never expect is your own catcher to be helping the other team while they're at bat. Unfortunately, it sounds like that's what Derek Bender was doing. According to ESPN, Bender told opposing hitters the types of pitches that were coming during a game that led to his team being eliminated from playoff contention! How mad would you be if you're his teammate and you actually care and are trying to make it to the Big Leagues? Making the playoffs would be a great time to showcase your skills! It would be quite upsetting if you didn't make it there because your teammate was helping the other team. That's some serious sabotage!
Bender was a 6th round draft pick in July out of Coastal Carolina. He was playing for the Minnesota Twins' Single-A affiliate in Fort Myers when he was busted. According to ESPN, in the 2nd game of a doubleheader Bender told multiple players for the Lakeland Flying Tigers, a farm team for the Detroit Tigers, what pitches were being thrown by Ross Dunn. Lakeland went on to win the game 6-0 to clinch the Florida State League West division thus eliminating Fort Myers from playoff contention. To make things even worse, the Mighty Mussels had a 6-game lead in the division only 3 weeks prior! Could Bender have been doing this for longer than suspected?
It was Lakeland's coaches who reportedly notified the Fort Myers coaches about the tipping. To add to it, Bender had allegedly told teammates he wanted to season to be over, per ESPN. That's not going to help his case. It's like that episode of South Park where Stan and the kids want the season to be over, but so do their opponents and it becomes a battle of who is worse. He has since been cut but he spent the final 2 games of the season in the bullpen and not in the dugout like he typically would, per ESPN.
