Cardinals’ reputation takes a hit
Team hurtmore by loss of character than by hacking penalties
The St. Louis Cardinals’ long- awaited punishment Monday for their computerhacking scandal can’t be judged by its monetary value or by the loss of valuable draft picks.
Their $ 2 million fine won’t even buy you a utility infielder these days. And the Cardinals’ forfeiture of their top two picks in the June draft— Nos. 56 and 75 overall— is hardly crippling.
More important, the picks will cost the Cardinals $ 1.853 million in slot money they no longer can spend in the draft. It all will go to the Houston Astros, the victims of the computer espionage by former Cardinals scouting director Chris Correa.
But the Cardinals, who won’t have a draft pick until No. 94 overall and will be limited to $ 2.072 million in slot money, will survive. And still thrive.
Their stadium will be packed almost every night with a sea of red, and they’ll be in the playoff hunt like they are always are, with 12 playoff appearances, two World Series titles and three National League pennants since 2000.
The only real villain in this scandal is Correa, who hacked into the Astros’ internal computer database at least 48 times in a two- year period. He is banned for life from baseball.
Considering Correa is serving 46 months in federal prison after pleading guilty last year to five counts of unauthorized access to a protected computer, he didn’t need his master’s degree to figure out he never was going to work in baseball again. He might never need a computer again, considering the restrictions he’ll face for any future employment.
Still, skeptics want to know whether it’s possible Correa acted alone when he gained access to the Astros’ proprietary information and didn’t tell a soul in the Cardinals’ organization.
Despite the years of work by investigators from the federal government and MLB, no one found evidence of any accomplices. Correa refused to cooperate with MLB, but unsealed court records showed he kept ‘‘ his intrusions a secret from his colleagues.’’
Considering Correa’s harsh punishment, which includes paying the Astros $ 279,038.65 in restitution, wouldn’t he have coughed up some names to lighten his own sentence? If Correa really had accomplices in this scandal and didn’t squeal, this is the greatest act of baseball courage and friendship since Greg Anderson, the former trainer who refused to testify against Barry Bonds in the BALCO scandal.
So, barring Correa changing his tune and singing while sitting in his prison cell, we’ve got to believe no one else was involved in the scandal. If there were any evidence— or even strong suspicions— there was knowledge of Correa’s dirty work among other Cardinals employees, team owner Bill DeWitt would be holding a job fair this weekend.
If commissioner Rob Manfred thought there was more than one person involved in this cyber espionage, he would have made the Cardinals forfeit their first- round pick every year until the city of St. Louis ran out of toasted ravioli. He could have ensured enough damage that the Cardinals would have to wait 108 years themselves for their next World Series title.
Really, as much as the Cardinals’ rivals would have loved to see a stiffer penalty, this was appropriate, particularly given the Astros are the beneficiaries. The Astros not only will get the Cardinals’ forfeited draft picks, but they will get the $ 2 million, which that must be paid in 30 days.
If nothing else, the punishment should scare the daylights out of any front- office executive or computer analyst daring to hack into another team’s database.
‘‘ This unprecedented award by the commissioner’s office,’’ Manfred said in a statement, ‘‘ sends a clear message of the severity of these actions.’’
It was a message that needed no password.