Self-assured Sox too cocky
What do they know that we don’t?
If it were warmer outside I would think about renting a convertible and driving it 209 miles from Fenway Park to 245 Park Ave., home of Major League Baseball’s offices, to confirm my suspicion that if I did, I might smell a rat the entire way.
Something stank about the way the Red Sox, when asking us to “reserve judgment,” acted so cocksure that they weren’t going to get bloodied by MLB’s investigation into their alleged use of the replay room to decode signs in 2018. They were a little too quick with their answers about their World Series title not being the least bit tainted.
In light of an Athletic report that flies in the face of innocence, from where does that confidence stem? It makes you wonder if they were assured that they had nothing to worry about because it would be difficult to prove the details in the report without an on-the-record whistleblower.
Let’s hope my suspicions are unfounded, driven by paranoia, and nobody tries to discredit The Athletic’s feisty, courageous reporters Ken Rosenthal and Evan Drellich. Remember, three different people with the Red Sox in 2018 told the Athletic that signs were decoded in the replay room and from there the baton of information was passed from the dugout to the base runner on second to the batter at the plate.
MLB, if it so chose, easily could say they found no one who could substantiate the details of the report and therefore won’t punish the Red Sox. But they can’t say that yet because not enough time has passed for a legitimate investigation. That’s where the Red Sox, by so cockily acting as if they have no cause for concern, might have overplayed their hand, creating suspicion that might already have been told what they investigation will find.
MLB even could do so without discrediting the report by saying that they were unable to either confirm or deny the details.
That’s more likely than any attempt to discredit the report, which would require suspending reality. What, three sources made the whole thing up and two savvy reporters were duped? No. Not a chance of either end of that equation being the case.
Rosenthal and Drellich are the same two reporters whose exposure of the Astros’ cheating was proven spot on and resulted in three managers losing their jobs. If MLB announces it couldn’t find anything, wouldn’t it be nice if one of the sources grew so incensed he went public? Don’t hold your breath waiting for that to happen. Look what happened to former Astros pitcher Mike Fiers for blowing the whistle on the record to The Athletic.
Fiers was painted as a snitch instead of as a courageous whistleblower by one of baseball’s most famous announcers. Sunday Night Baseball game analyst/Mets consultant Jessica Mendoza, appearing on ESPN Radio’s “Golic and Wingo” on Thursday morning, the very day the Mets fired Carlos Beltran as their manager, said, “To go public with it and call them out and start all of this, it’s hard to swallow.”
That’s it, kill the messenger. Beat up the mailman for delivering your eviction notice. Blame the cop for citing you for driving 120 mph in a school zone.
This all made for an entertaining week in cyberspace. A Twitter account claiming inside information accused Jose Altuve and Alex Bregman wore electronic devices on their bodies that let them know what pitch was coming with a buzzer. Someone then dug up Rosenthal’s onfield interview of Altuve after his walk-off home run that clinched the 2019 AL pennant in which Rosenthal asks why Altuve signaled to teammates not to rip off his jersey. Altuve said it was because he’s shy. That set off a series of tweets showing a shirtless Altuve in various locations. For the record, Rosenthal tweeted that he was fed the question by a producer, who was just curious and was not onto any buzzer scandal. Bregman has denied such cheating and nobody has uncovered any buzzer evidence.
A video of Alex Cora’s interview after the Red Sox were swept by the Yankees in London also made the rounds on Twitter.
“Their attention to detail is phenomenal,” Cora said of the Yankees. “I was joking with somebody that their biggest free-agent acquisition is Carlos Beltran.”
At that point, Cora looked at somebody on his right, winked and smiled.
“I know how it works, you know,” Cora continued. “He’s helping a lot. They’re paying attention to details, and we have to clear, clean our details. It was eye-opening the last few days, from top to bottom. And I’m not saying, you know, devices and all that stuff. It’s just stuff that the game will dictate and we’ll scream at people, and it’s right there. Throughout the evening, I was looking, and I saw it, you know. And right now they’re a lot better than us. So we need to get better.”
One word gave that clip so much play: devices. Cora appeared to be discussing legal sign stealing, pointing out the Yankees were doing it much better than the Sox. The fact that he felt the need to clarify that he wasn’t talking about “devices and all that stuff,” was interesting.
Meanwhile, we’re all asked to “reserve judgment” on the Red Sox, who in 2016 were banned from signing international players for a year and lost their rights to a handful of teenage prospects because they broke signing rules, and in 2017 were busted for stealing signs in the Fitbit scandal. Those aren’t good signs of credibility, yet the Red Sox appear so cocky they’ll be cleared.
Why is that?