More fallout from baseball’s cheating scandal

UncleScoopy

“The Boston Red Sox fired manager Alex Cora on Tuesday, a day after baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred implicated him in the sport’s sign-stealing scandal.”

6 thoughts on “More fallout from baseball’s cheating scandal”

  1. I doubt they will erase any stats, nor (especially) any championships. That would set a precedent MLB does NOT want to have to live up to. As evidence, I offer all the steroid era stats.

    Stealing signs has been going on for over a century. It’s such a part of the game that catchers routinely add extra signs as soon as a runner reaches 2nd base. I’m not sure it should even be classified as cheating. Figuring out a sign and relaying it to the batter without being spotted takes skill.

    But what the Astros and the Red Sox did was something else entirely. By using a center field camera and monitor to take sign stealing high tech it unleveled the playing field. Instead of the cat and mouse game between the pitcher/catcher and the runner/batter you give an overwhelming advantage to the home team. After all, only the home team can arrange a high tech system like that while a visiting team has an equal opportunity to spot a sign from 2nd base. Not to mention, the high tech system can be used on every pitch, not just with a runner on 2nd.

    Here’s the thing. If MLB hadn’t come down hard on the Astros (and doesn’t come down hard on the Red Sox) each of the other 28 teams would be forced to set up their own high tech systems just to stay competitive.

    As for going after the players, I’m probably biased as the one player mentioned in the report is my team’s new manager. But as this scandal was known before Beltran was hired I am sure the Mets were aware and unless he lied to the Mets about it, he shouldn’t now be fired over it. As for discipline from MLB, if it’s true that Beltran, like the other players, was offered immunity in exchange for testimony than they can’t discipline him now that he is a manager. Even if they somehow could get away with it legally, you’d never get a player to testify again.

  3. That means two out of the last three World Series-winning managers have been fired in less than 24 hours. That’s gotta be a first.

    I saw one sports writer claim that what Cora did was on the same level as Pete Rose and the 1919 White Sox and that he should be permanently banned. I think that’s a wild overstatement. There’s a huge difference between cheating to win and cheating to lose (or putting yourself in a position where you might cheat to lose).

    1. I agree with your sentiment.

      If we issue a permanent ban on every player who was caught cheating to win, the Hall of Fame would be almost empty. King Kelly and John McGraw basically invented baseball cheating, and they were great at it in an era with a single umpire. Rogers Hornsby famously pointed out that he or somebody else cheated in some way in every game he ever played.

      And then there was the steroid era …

      I place cheating to lose in a completely separate category.

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