Baseball-The Cheating Scandal of all Eternity

I hadn’t intended to write anything about baseball until after Spring Training, but recent events have mandated that I, as a baseball fan, must comment upon.  I waited until the scandal had died down a bit, so I could get all the pertinent information and to let events take their course.  Now I am ready to speak of these issues.  Here . . . I go.

This is the best thing to have happened to baseball in years!

I’m not even being sarcastic or provocative.  I mean it!  Here we are in the absolute dead zone for baseball news and everyone has been talking about the sport all week.  It’s knocked the NFL’s Championship weekend out of the top spot in sports news.  The sports media has been saying for years that baseball needed to promote itself better.  I’ll translate that for you; they wanted some controversy.  As soon as the MLB gave it to them, the pundits and commentators lined up to talk baseball.  This is awesome!

This is more than just, “No publicity is bad publicity.”  This is a great scandal with consequences and plenty of room to argue the issues.  There’s no black and white in this.  You can intellectually take either side really.  There’s no illegal money transfers, no girlfriend beating, no referees making questionable decisions, everyone can have an opinion on this without having to parrot some enforced mass media viewpoint. 

Having established how wonderful it is to hear people passionately taking about baseball, I guess I have to offer up my own opinion.  (Part of me just wants to leave this right here and bask in the glow of the attention.)  First, we have to establish the essence of the scandal.  At its core, the Astros were caught using electronic aids to steal the signs of their opponents.  The aftermath of this disclosure by the MLB has resulted in firing of the Mets, Red Sox, and Astros’ managers, along with the Astros’ GM.

Now for my opinion.  This whole scandal was exposed for the purpose of kneecapping the Yankees’ two main American League opponents, the Red Sox and Astros.  (Watch the Twins finally beat them in the first round this season.)  This was also a consolation prize for the Dodgers, since they lost to those two teams in the World Series recently.  Sorry LA, you should have actually won.  There you have it.  Glad to help clear all this up for you.  Once again, I’m tempted to stop writing right here.

It all gets a bit complicated and murky after this.  A couple of years ago, the Red Sox had been caught stealing signs and using an Apple Watch to communicate those signs.  Commissioner Rob Manfred warned everyone not to use electronic devices for sign stealing.  He said there’d be consequences the next time and that the GM and manager would be held responsible.

Oblivious, the Astros set up a system at Minute Maid Park with a video camera and banging on a garbage can to let their hitters know what pitch was coming up.  After the Astros’ championship run, Mike Fiers left the team and blew the lid off the scheme after he got to his new team.  (What a “courageous” move, sabotaging your old team while playing for a division opponent.  I’m sure teammates on his current team have kept him in the know about their own sign-stealing operations.)  Opposing players had voiced suspicions to the MLB before this, but after this disclosure, they had to investigate. 

Then Astros bench coach, Alex Cora, was fingered as the main enabler, along with then player, Carlos Beltran.  As threatened, Manfred fined the Astros $5M, the maximum allowable, and suspended manager AJ Hinch and GM Jeff Luhnow for a year.  An hour after the announcement, both were fired.  In turn, Cora, the Red Sox manager, and Beltran, the new manager of the Mets, were also fired.  And everyone learned their lesson.  The end.

What’s that?  What about the Astros players who actively participated in this scam?  Oh, they were given immunity for testifying.  So far, they haven’t been punished at all.  Sure they flipped on Cora and Beltran.  They weren’t teammates anymore.  Yeah, here’s where things start getting ugly.  In my opinion, this isn’t right at all.  Hinch reportedly tried to discourage the sign-stealing (by breaking a couple of video monitors), but the players continued doing it.  What was he going to realistically do to them?  Given the Players’ Union, he probably couldn’t even use strong language.  Luhnow was aware of the situation, but what was he going to, fire the players?

In lieu of fining and suspending the players (which may be problematical, as this might involve the whole team), some commentators have suggested stripping Houston of their title and making the players give back their rings.  That’s very NCAA.  Go ahead move the franchise now.  The people of Houston will end their support of the team forever after such a decision. 

In days immediately following, more dirty laundry started coming out.  Jose Altuve was accused of wearing a buzzer that was alerting him to pitches.  He claims he was mic’d up, which is possible, but it’s hard to believe any player after the Ryan Braun PED scandal.  Suddenly, former pitcher Jack McDowell accused Tony LaRussa of using the scoreboard for sign-stealing in the 80’s when LaRussa managed the White Sox.  What about steroids?  And why isn’t Pete Rose in the Hall of Fame, he only bet on baseball.  The whole game of baseball is fake!  (Just like the NFL.)        

Whew!  I was right.  I should have stopped earlier before it got ridiculous.  Sign-stealing is part of the game, that’s why they have to do multiple signs with a runner at second.  Bobby Thompson’s famous, “Shot heard round the world,” has been accused of being on a stolen sign.  So the problem here is the electronic element of this sign-stealing.  Is this so bad?  Apparently, it makes signs nearly useless, especially now that mound visits are limited.  You might remember in that Astros/Dodgers series, catchers were visiting the pitchers with nearly every pitch, which caused that rule change.          

Even with the severe consequences of being caught, it’s not like teams are going to stop trying to find ways of using electronics to steal signs.  As long as there are no consequences to the players for cheating like this, they’ll keep doing it.  Don’t think for a moment a bunch of managers, bench coaches, and GM’s are coming up with these schemes.  If managers can’t order it stopped, it’s obviously the players. 

In my mind, if technology is causing the problem, then use technology to solve it.  Give pitchers, catchers, and the dugout encrypted wireless communications.  Obviously, it’s going to be “beeps,” since you still can’t say out loud what the pitch is going to be.  I’m not even sure I care if the dugout actually talks to the players, as long as the communication is recorded and available to the MLB and it doesn’t delay the game.  This can’t be that hard or expensive to figure out, unlike the electronic strike zone (rolls eyes). 

Does this all really tarnish the Astros’ World Series and the reputations of their players and former management?  Does this soil baseball in general?  Yes, but like I said, sign-stealing is part of the game.  It’s not truly game-breaking like steroids and betting on the game (and last season’s juiced balls).  What got them in trouble was using electronics to do it (which allowed them to do it too well), after everyone had been explicitly told not to.  This is almost more of a power play between the players/teams and the commissioner than anything else.  Unfortunately, if you’re not punishing everyone involved, you’re not really putting your foot down. 

Is this the end of the scandal?  Were more (all) teams doing something like this?  Will this be a deterrent?  Can the MLB go after everyone doing this?  Is it everyone doing this?  Will there be a solution proposed?  I’ll finally stop here and let those questions hang for now.  In the meantime, I’m just glad to hear people talking about baseball.