History should remain unchanged
If a cartoonist were to portray baseball’s signstealing scandal, the Dodgers and Yankees would be shown with halos above their heads, positively angelic in their outrage.
How dare the Astros cheat us out of the postseason like that? Give us our due! Vacate their titles and let justice prevail!
First of all, there will be no vacating the Astros’ 2017 World Series victory over the Dodgers, or their ALCS triumph over the Yankees last season. This has happened in college sports, wiping out Louisville’s 2013 basketball championship and numerous other accomplishments tainted by scandal, but it should never happen anywhere. Respected pundit Charles P. Pierce, currently authoring The Politics Blog, calls this concept “both a crime against history and an extended exercise in hilarious tinpot moralism.”
So what is it, you want to call the Dodgers champions of 2017? They were beaten. It happened, and don’t try to say it didn’t. The Astros were guilty of illegal signstealing throughout two regular seasons; does all that disappear, as well? How do you determine when the Astros were cheating or just plain superior? Don’t even start with revising the standings or all the statistics involved. Beyond the sanctions handed down by Major League Baseball, the Astros have to live with humiliation for the rest of their lives, and that’s plenty. Preserve the history and let them deal with the consequences.
Meanwhile, there’s a growing sense that many MLB teams are stealing signs through technology; they just haven’t been caught yet.
Many are making “tip of the iceberg” comments about where this is heading. So much of it is rumor, devoid of hard evidence, but the climate is undeniably foul.
They’d rather not know
Say you’re a hitter and your signstealing club has managed to tell you what’s coming. Now it’s just a rollicking sequence of carefree atbats, right? Not necessarily. Giants broadcaster Mike Krukow recalled that Jack Clark ,a slugger on the Giants’ teams from 197584, “didn’t want to know what pitch was supposedly coming. Early in his career, he was told to get something down and away, and he leaned into it, and the pitch came right at his head. Since that day, he never took a sign. Kevin Mitchell was like that, too. I heard (the A’s) Coco Crisp was another guy, and when I asked him, ‘You didn’t want the signs?’ he said ‘Hell, no. That’s bad luck.’ ” Former thirdbase coach Tim Flannery said the same thing about the great Tony Gwynn and several San Diego players when he worked for the Padres . ... People wonder why so many players, many of whom want to play it absolutely straight, buy into an illegal scheme. Simply this: Baseball has cultivated a culture of cheating since the game was invented. Maybe players didn’t want to pop amphetamines, cork their bats, scuff up the baseballs or take steroids, but these were trends, producing great results. In that neverending search for an edge, they’ll jump right on board . ... From recently retired infielder David Freese, via Twitter, on the revelations made by A’s pitcher Mike Fiers: “Still don’t know what’s more frustrating tho, an exteammate (on a championship team) talking publicly about his team cheating, or so many guys being down to use a damn trash can.”
Maybe it doesn’t make the list of the 49ers’ alltime greatest defensive plays, but when this year’s highlight film is put together, don’t forget Nick Bosa hustling into pass coverage on Kirk Cousins’ toss to running back Dalvin Cook last Sunday, deflecting it away like a defensive back with an allout dive. Snapshot of an extraordinary unit . ... Out of nowhere: ExWarriors guard Quinn Cook steps into an injurydepleted Lakers lineup Wednesday night and lights up Orlando with 22 points on 9for14 shooting. “I’ve seen Quinn grind and grind and grind to get an opportunity,” LeBron James told reporters. “Just a true professional. Great teammate, no matter what the circumstances.” ...There was great news in the WNBA when a new collective bargaining agreement provided significant pay raises, the chance for top players to their earnings (in excess of $500,000), improved travel (longterm goal: charter flights every time), jobs created to remove the temptation of playing overseas, players receiving full salary while on maternity leave and, noted Warriors coach Steve Kerr, “Players get their own hotel rooms on the road. That might not seem like a big deal, but it took us forever to get that in the NBA. If we wanted our own room, we had to pay the difference. So I’m happy for them. The quality of WNBA play has improved dramatically, and it’s good to see them earn everything they’re getting.”