Apple Watches, Cheating and the Evil Empire

Dammit, why didn’t we think of that? The word “that” is in reference to the Boston Red Sox using an Apple Watch to steal signs from not only the New York Yankees but from other teams as well over the course of the 2017 season. Stealing signs have been around since baseball and giving signs have been around and while it technically may not be against the rules (unless you use electronic devices to do so of course which Boston did) it can be a shady thing to do. To be fair I’m sure the Yankees have done their fair share of it, there were always those allegations that Derek Jeter received signs and pitch tipping from some random guy out in center field which I never truly believed, but this is a Yankees-themed site and it was the Boston Red Sox who did it to New York so of course I’m going to talk about it. Here are my thoughts on the whole debacle. 

I will say that I think it’s great that Boston fessed up to the league about it, honesty goes a long way with me, but I am not so sure that manager John Farrell didn’t know about it like they stated. Sure, I’d buy that Dave Dombrowski and other team executives didn’t know about it but I find it highly unlikely that the manager had no idea what was going on here. Rob Manfred says a penalty is coming and I am interested to see what kind of penalty the league will lay down on Boston for this offense. I mean, what can they do? Fine them? Money is a drop in a bucket to a Major League team. They can’t reverse the outcome of games and they aren’t going to make the team postseason ineligible or anything drastic like that so what could they do? I’m not so sure but I’m not expecting much to be honest.  

Will the league follow what the NFL did when the New England Patriots got caught cheating in “Deflategate” and suspend a player for a huge chunk of the season? Tom Brady was suspended four games, or one-fourth of the NFL regular season, after cheating in the 2015 AFC Championship game while the team was also docked a first-round draft pick so maybe something along these lines could happen to the Red Sox for this scandal. I’m thinking the punishment will be more like “Spygate” though, you know that other time a Boston-area team got caught cheating, when the team was docked a 2008 draft pick in the first round while the coach Bill Belichick was fined $500,000 after filming Jets coaches signals during a 2007 game.  

So what are my thoughts? To hell with the Red Sox. Dock them five-or-ten games and let the Yankees win the division. I’m being a bit extreme and a tad bit sarcastic but honestly something major has to be done. You have executives from teams being charged with hacking other team’s personal files and databases and now there are reports of teams using electronic devices to steal signs. Where does it stop, and more importantly when does it stop? It stops when the league stops it so no pressure, but the future of the game is riding on this decision. A slap on the wrist encourages more cheating but a stern and strong hand nips it in the bud. Stay tuned to see which one we’ll be talking about when the league drops their decision on the Boston Red Sox. 

Let’s Get Alex Rodriguez an ESPY

"An ESPY Bro?"

Alex Rodriguez is up for an ESPY Award this season from ESPN, believe it or not. Alex will compete with Rob Gronkowski, Derrick Rose and Lindsey Vonn in the 2015 ESPN ESPY Awards for the 2015 Comeback Athlete of the Year.

Alex missed the entire 2014 season while serving his suspension in the Biogenesis scandal and is currently posting a .285/.384/.536 with 15 home runs and 42 RBI in his first 67 games of the season. Alex also became the American League’s leader in RBI all-time, passed Willie Mays on the all-time home run list and collected his 3,000^th hit of his career. Some players don’t do this in a career, Alex has done this and more in just one season.

It’s no secret that Rodriguez is not a fan favorite across the globe so it’s up to us, the Yankees fans, to send Rodriguez home with the ESPY. We would not only hand another slap in the face to the Patriots, they deflated the balls come on guys, but we would also hand one respectfully to the world if Alex were to take home the award.

Everyone deserves a second chance, even A Rod so tune in on July 15^th at 8:00 pm ET to root on Rodriguez and see if he wins.

Thanks to Tom Brady MLB Has To Watch Its Balls

Thanks to Tom Brady, Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots everyone around Major League Baseball now feels compelled to watch their balls. Major League Baseball has upped their security for its game balls this season in the wake of Deflate Gate. Let the jokes begin.

Starting this season an MLB representative watches the baseballs while a clubhouse assistant carries them from the umpires’ room to the playing field. If the supply of balls runs low an MLB security guard is now sent to retrieve more balls from the umpires’ room instead of clubhouse personnel. MLB is saying the changes in policy were discussed before the AFC Championship game this season but honestly I’m not buying the huge coincidence personally.

What can you do to a ball? The umpire is going to see scuffs and will notice a difference if the ball is dunked in water or altered. MLB is now telling teams what temperature they should set their thermostats at when storing the balls and is telling the teams how much humidity can be around the balls. All because some douche bag deflated them and won a game he was going to win anyway and then a Super Bowl. Whatever.