A.J. Hinch and Alex Cora Are Back in MLB. But What Does That Mean for the Sport?

https://www.theringer.com/mlb/2020/...alex-cora-return-tigers-red-sox-sign-stealing

What is electronic sign-stealing, anyway? It’s the use of technology and empirics to seek out every tiny advantage. It’s a perverse extension of the thought process behind sabermetrics, and that win-at-all-costs mentality has led far darker places than an illicit camera and an ad hoc amateur production of Stomp. Teams have turned acts of domestic violence into opportunities for arbitrage. They’ve flouted MLB rules on international player recruitment to scoop up prospects while they’re still children. They’ve covered up or soft-pedaled sexual assault and engaged in bribery and smuggling.

We can’t blame the pioneers of baseball’s empirical revolution for not anticipating this perversion. But this is the kind of behavior that, purposely or not, the sport has incentivized. And without strong industry-wide ethical standards, those incentives are treated as mandates by people who recognize that the league will not adequately police its teams. This isn’t about the Tigers bringing back a manager who’d failed to complete his penance. This is about sports elevating those who fail to uphold its standards, and how that threatens the illusions upon which the very cathedral of meritocracy is built.

Link to bolded story.

https://www.theringer.com/mlb/2019/...ler-los-angeles-dodgers-philadelphia-phillies


“An Unacceptable Lack of Judgment”: Gabe Kapler and the Dodgers Must Be Held Accountable.



So where was the outrage about this especially considering the Tannenbaum debacle.