'In mid-career, Gaylord Perry confessed to throwing the spitball, and MLB did nothing,' Hutchison

4/27/13, "Eject Gaylord Perry," by Harold Hutchison, NRO

"In mid-career, he confessed to throwing the spitball, and MLB did nothing." 

"Gaylord Perry admitted, in his 1974 autobiography, to throwing the spitball in violation of multiple provisions of Rule 8.02(a) since 1964. He ultimately won 314 games and posted 3,564 strikeouts over a 22-year career, totals that got him elected to the Hall of Fame in 1991, his third year of eligibility.

In Me and the Spitter: An Autobiographical Confession, Perry not only detailed how he doctored the ball but also named his teammate Bob Shaw as a spitball pitcher who became his mentor in cheating. The spitball had been banned in 1920, with pitchers currently using it being grandfathered in. The last legal spitballer, Burleigh Grimes, retired after the 1934 season....
 

Baseball’s failure to deal with a pitcher who routinely violated the rules against doctoring the baseball sent a signal to players that cheating didn’t necessarily have consequences."...Gaylord Perry, Baseball Reference

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