MLB whistleblower deserves applause
When future generations are documenting baseball history, Mike Fiers will surely be remembered as one of the game’s most significant figures. Not necessarily for what he did on the field, though tossing a pair of no-hitters is certainly a worthy achievement. Let’s just hope all his fellow players give him a big tip of the cap when he takes the mound this season. After all, Fiers blew the lid off one of the most nefarious schemes in the history of the national pastime.
When future generations are documenting baseball history, Mike Fiers will surely be remembered as one of the game’s most significant figures.
Not necessarily for what he did on the field, though tossing a pair of no-hitters is certainly a worthy achievement.
Let’s just hope all his fellow players give him a big tip of the cap when he takes the mound this season.
After all, Fiers blew the lid off one of the most nefarious schemes in the history of the national pastime, a scandal that ranks right up there with the Black Sox and the Steroids Era.
There will surely be some who view him as a back-stabbing snitch for going public with revelations that Houston cheated its way to a World Series title in 2017 by stealing signs, who will whisper — or even say right out loud — that he violated one of baseball’s cardinal rules by revealing the secrets of the clubhouse.
We already got a sampling of that line of thought from ESPN analyst and New York Mets adviser Jessica Mendoza, who said Thursday the pitcher should have reported his concerns to Major League Baseball instead of going to The Athletic with his blockbuster story.
“It didn’t sit well with me,” Mendoza said during an appearance on ESPN’s “Golic and Wingo” show. “Honestly, it made me sad for the sport that that’s how this all got found out.”
Then, she dug herself an even deeper hole.
“This wasn’t something MLB naturally investigated,” Mendoza said. “It came from within. It was a player that was a part of it, that benefited from it during the regular season when he was a part of that team. That, when I first heard about it, it hits you like any teammate would. It’s something that you don’t do. I totally get telling your future teammates, helping them win, letting people know, but to go public with it and call them out and start all of this, it’s hard to swallow.”
What a crock.
If Fiers hadn’t made his on-the-record allegations to a journalist, there’s a very good chance the world never would have known the full extent of the scam.
If there’s one thing that sports leagues and pretty much any for-profit business try to avoid, it’s embarrassing publicity. We’ll never know how thorough the investigation would’ve been if baseball officials had known it was all on the down low, but history is filled with foul deeds that went largely unpunished until a whistleblower bravely went public with the truth.
Chances are, AJ Hinch, Jeff Luhnow, Alex Cora and Carlos Beltrán would still have jobs.
Instead, all were ousted from the game after Commissioner Rob Manfred quickly and thoroughly investigated the report, singling them out as most responsible for a clandestine video system that allowed the Astros to signal to their hitters what pitches were coming — providing a huge advantage over the guys on the mound.
Not surprisingly, there were players who reacted negatively to the way Fiers exposed the Astros’ dirty little secret, though they didn’t have the same courage to let their be names be used.