Dodgers - Cheating Scandal

Astros fans pointing at another team for using sticky stuff

 

The difference in reaction between this and the trash can scandal is quite noticeable.

 

Yeah, *** Trevor Bauer.

 

This will all get blamed on the Astros for starting it somehow.

 

Clayton Kershaw having brown sticky substance at the back of his hat.

Umpires never check his hat for illegal substance, and he gets ejected.

His dirty hat has always been a problem.

I know Clayton Kershaw is a bad pitcher with his shaky control. He can easily be hit in the playoffs.

 

HOW MANY ****ING THREADS DO WE NEED FOR THIS?

 

as many as it takes

 

One had hard evidence.

It's weird that the defense to "we were caught cheating" is "well, we think other teams probably are too".

 

The front offices of other teams never claimed they didn't cheat. It was just individual players or managers who would come after the Astros. That in itself is just weird. It only makes sense if most teams expect to be found guilty if investigated.

In any case, it's a media thing -- no point in asking for justice now. I would prefer the Astros go on offense and relentlessly trash the Dodgers as pitching cheaters every chance they get.

 

There's no defense.

Why is this weird?

 

This is a weird expectation. Do we think everyone is supposed to proactively claim innocence about things?

And yet, people repeatedly point to these other allegations to act as though the Astros were treated unjustly by MLB. See the post above yours.

I wonder if these people also think Bagwell should be treated as a steroids user under the same standard.

 

The obvious solution is that MLB should take every team’s first and second pick in the next draft.

 

The Astros got caught because they had a former player they upset, they were investigated, cooperated with the investigation, and generally were stupid.

The one hard evidence only works with a system of due process. If others were cheating at the same time, punishing the Astros disproportionately would not be due process even if the Astros were the only ones caught besides the Red Sox. Relying on the media as an enforcement mechanism to spur investigations is not due process.

If MLB is really taking balls from every pitcher, and testing them for chemicals and having someone actually document balls condition on receipt (i.e., was there visual/tactile evidence of a substance on a ball), that would be due process, and demonstrates a completely different standard that was applied to the Astros.

I am very skeptical of MLB's enforcement to prevent cheating as it took years/decades to enforce PEDs. The only things that makes me think MLB may actually do a fair assessment of sticky substances are:
1) They don't want another Astros situation when one team gets singled out on what may or may not be a league-wide problem,
2) People are collecting baseballs to test how the baseball is changing. If sticky substances are detectable on foul balls, it is only a matter of time before the people collecting foul balls start testing them for sticky substances.

 

I'll say it again. This stuff has been going on in baseball since the beginning of time. All teams do whatever they can to get an edge...It's about getting caught...or ratted out. Agenda laden usually...personal grudges aside...The bigger picture is what this was about...We are a Yankees type threat, and not wanted.
The hypocrisy involved has been par for the course forever. The owners and their figurehead commissioner ....

 

Do you not think the Astros were pioneers in sticky recipes? I guarantee Luhnow had a team of chefs brewing up advanced recipes.

 

It is odd because there were many allegations of the Dodgers, Red Sox, and Yankees cheating in the same period. You're right that if you weren't accused you wouldn't say anything. But if there are allegations, you proclaim innocence. Instead what happened is they stayed quiet and MLB made sure that nothing went further in the media.

 

I can't see sticky stuff being a big scandal--freaking everybody does it. Part of me would enjoy seeing the Dodgers vilified for something everybody does, just so those losers can taste what it was like for us, who were also vilified for something everybody does. And, just so another team's ring can have morons affixing virtual asterisks to it. But, sour grapes aside, the whole sticky-stuff thing doesn't strike me as very scandalous. Pitchers cheat; they always have; they always will.