Machiavelli, as I recall -
Do this ethics-free, competition-strangling b a r e l y - licit-seeming thing and don't let anyone Know.
('licit' only if carefully scripted euphemisms, rehearsed amidst co-conspirators - successfully scam the jurors when detection occurs.)
We start teaching the tykes the utility of scheming, cavilling, dissembling -- the first time Mom/Dad throw a coke can at the Little League ref, just after a dropped easy pop-fly earns an Error.
Guess it was the Shrub-grade hubris that got these amateurs..