Hey guys, we get it ... most teams were bending the rules before MLB came down hard on the Houston Astros for their electronic sign-stealing operation. But pointing the finger after you've been outed is the most juvenile, bush league tactic possible. "Yeah but ... what about what they did, too!"
That's been life for the Los Angeles Dodgers, primarily when dealing with unruly Astros fans, over the last few years. But now the Boston Red Sox have joined the party, because their unsavory practices have recently taken centerstage once again as Evan Drellich's book "Winning Fixes Everything" is gaining traction with its release on Feb. 14. Drellich was the reporter who broke the Astros' cheating scandal, and the book centers around that (in addition to the landscape of the league as a whole when this was all at its height).
The Red Sox, who hired Alex Cora away from the Astros to be their manager after the 2017 season, won the World Series the very next year in 2018 against the Dodgers. It was widely believed Cora took the Astros' practices (or, at least, his learnings) to Boston, which helped guide a near-flawless 108-win season and dominant 11-3 playoff run.
In the end, Cora was "suspended" for the 2020 season (we'd call it a 60-game vacation in Puerto Rico) and video room employee JT Watkins was the scapegoat for whatever transpired in Boston during that 2018 campaign. But perhaps this book will reveal more details on Boston's alleged sign stealing.
Before we can get there, though, the Boston Globe dropped some perfectly-timed propaganda to divert attention. Apparently an "unidentified" former member of the Red Sox says that the Dodgers got caught for cheating in the 2018 World Series but the league and commissioner Rob Manfred decided not to do anything.
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Red Sox player accuses Dodgers of cheating during 2018 World Series. Ok.
The fact of the matter is that the Astros and Red Sox won two championships while employing such practices, whether proven or alleged. The Dodgers, who lost, might've also been doing the same/similar thing, and if that was the case, they were outfoxed by better cheaters!
There was clearly an undefined frontier, to an extent, based on how widespread this alleged behavior was among some of the best teams in the sport, but why do those who have been outed for their actions constantly think the league is trying to protect a select few teams? What does MLB have to gain by shielding the Dodgers or Yankees -- two teams who have been accused by players and fans -- from guilt or criticism?
This quote is particularly funny, too, because the player claims the Dodgers were "the biggest cheaters in the whole industry" ... but they have nothing to show for it? If the Dodgers had this massive edge, whether opposing teams were catching on or not, how did the opposing team always come out on top?
Takes a cheater to know a cheater! This is the natural progression of such fallout, though. Let the former Red Sox and Astros blab all they want. We wouldn't be surprised if the Dodgers broke the rules, because at this point no revelation is particularly shocking.
But it's clear that people in the Red Sox and Astros' corner are trained to deflect and finger point because they can't handle the weak punishments they received for being caught. And the more players who come forward with no desire to reveal themselves, the better the Dodgers and their fans should feel.
NEXT STORY: Are Dodgers' clubhouse concerns overblown?