Plus, tipping opponents to pitches is just one step away from conspiring to throw a game. You’re messing with honesty of everyone’s efforts, and that’s simply unforgivable.

The rationalization seems to be that the game is out of hand and no harm is done by one pal getting a hit because he knows what’s coming. It may be true that one eighth-inning hit won’t change the outcome of a 12-2 game. But if the hit goes out of the park or if it is strung together with a few other hits, it does substantial harm to the ERA of the pitcher — your teammate — who is trying to keep his job.

The fact is that the pitchers in blow-outs are the ones at the end of the bullpen bench. These are guys who are trying their absolute hardest on every pitch because that’s the only way they’re going to stay in the big leagues. They’re fringe players, the ones the reporters don’t talk to and the fans don’t besiege for autographs and A-Rod doesn’t ask to accompany him to a post-game outing at Hooters. The game means a lot to them, maybe more than it does to a superstar because it’s so much harder for mop-up guys just to hang onto a roster slot.

So if A-Rod was tipping his pals to what was coming and they were in turn tipping him off, the people getting hurt were the ones who could least afford to be hurt. That home run or the rally a hit could lead to could end the career of such a pitcher.

It would be grand if someone could get to the truth of the matter. But Roberts herself said on the Today Show Monday that she can’t prove most of these things. She just thinks they’re true.

That’s almost as bad as the allegations themselves. I’m not going to say that A-Rod doesn’t deserve the negative attention he’s getting from the book. He’s practically begged for someone to write this kind of smear-all account. Even now, he doesn’t seem bothered by any of it. Some of it — like the stuff about chilling with Madonna — he actually seems to like having out there for the world to see.

And with so much smoke, there’s usually fire. Roberts may or may not have gotten everything right, but the odds are that she got some of it right.

As a fan of baseball, I hope that the pitch-tipping stuff isn’t right. Because if it is, it’s just too disgusting to contemplate.

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