Baseball may be America’s pastime, but it’s also providing valuable lessons on corporate governance. For the current sign-stealing scandal underscores the importance of board oversight of an organizational culture of integrity, and the risks that can arise when such culture is lacking. And that’s a critical message for corporate boards across industry sectors who, with the help of general counsel, might do well to consider the relevance of this controversy to their own operations.

Baseball is, of course, a game—but also a very big business. It’s an iconic American industry regularly in the public spotlight; subject to multiple rules and regulations; dependent not on the production of products but rather on the skills of individual employees; operating in an extraordinarily competitive environment that heavily incentivizes individual performance. Its business model is grounded in a commitment to integrity and compliance, without which public confidence in its service would suffer. And that’s a description that could fit a whole lot of companies.