The 2017-champion Astros? Busted. The 2018-champion Red Sox? Manager Alex Cora already has been fired.
Even newly hired Mets manager Carlos Beltran – a ringleader in the Astros’ 2017 electronic sign-stealing fiasco – is out of a job before managing a game as the fallout over one of the biggest cheating scandals in baseball history continued into Thursday.
Care to go back a little further in history – to 2016?
Not that anybody has accused the 2016 Cubs of the kind of high-tech violations that resulted in historic levels of penalties levied against the Astros by Major League Baseball – and might yet reach beyond Cora (the Astros’ bench coach in ’17) with the Red Sox.
But, for the record: We’re clean, they say.
“I think it’s 100 percent safe to say that, without a doubt,” said first baseman Anthony Rizzo, whose Cubs won three of four road games during their seven-game World Series victory over the Cleveland Indians in 2016. “That’s for sure, on the record.”
In fact, said first-year Cubs manager David Ross – a catcher on that Cub champion – the Cubs saw no indication that the Indians tried to use any such non-traditional means to steal signs during the series.
“It is disappointing,” Ross said of the revelations involving the Astros and MLB’s ongoing investigation into the Red Sox (his former team). “You’ve got to applaud Major League Baseball for doing their due diligence and upholding the integrity of the game. It’s super important for our fans, for our players, for our coaches.
“I’m glad they did their homework and made some of the decisions they made.”
Just because the Cubs didn’t detect any wrongdoing by the Indians during that World Series doesn’t mean they haven’t suspected some teams during other series of high-tech violations.
One Cubs insider said earlier this offseason that the team believed a playoff opponent in recent years tried to signal catcher signs to hitters from the dugout.
And Rizzo on Thursday also said he believes teams have done it to the Cubs at times.
“A hundred percent,” he said. “I don’t know to that [Astros’] extent.”
He and teammate Daniel Descalso have no problem with traditional on-field attempts at picking up signs, whether decoding a third base coach’s signs or a runner on second stealing catchers’ signs – but both say electronic attempts are unacceptable.
“MLB’s done a good job the last few years to have guys in the clubhouse an all around monitoring it,” Rizzo said, adding: “There’s times when you do hear some stuff, and there’s times where teams will decoy, too, to make you think you’re hearing stuff. It’s a cat-and-mouse game. Some of the stuff is crazy and some of the stuff is part of the game.”
