If you’re anti-sign stealing, then you’re not allowed to be pro-AI. The Houston Astros may have been the biggest offender when it came to modernizing cheating, but they also pioneered the advancements, and essentially got away with it before the people who determine what is or isn’t moral deemed their methods immoral. Telling someone, “You should know better!” prior to what they “should know” being technically illegal falls into a gray area that America was built on.
So, you can add MLB commissioner Rob Manfred’s admission that granting Astros players immunity like they just won a Quick Fire was “maybe not my best decision ever” to the long list of his numerous errors.
“I’m not sure that I would have approached it with giving players immunity,” Manfred said in an interview with Time. “Once we gave players immunity, it puts you in a box as to what exactly you were going to do in terms of punishment.
“I might have gone about the investigative process without that grant of immunity and see where it takes us. Starting with, I’m not going to punish anybody, maybe not my best decision ever.”
Manfred’s comments aren’t going to placate any fanbase, and rattling off resentments/fuck-ups that he hasn’t been held accountable for is some kind of flex.
“Hey, remember that time I called the World Series trophy a ‘piece of metal,’ and allowed the biggest cheating scandal since the ’90s to fester so long that sign-stealing was in the Astros’ scouting report? Man, I really botched that.”
Is there any other incriminating evidence Manfred would like to get off his chest while he’s on the record? You want to take credit for Chappaquiddick, too, or what?
Never admit you’re wrong
Even if Manfred was too lenient on Astros’ players (he wasn’t), it’s too little too late for New York Yankees fans, and since the Pinstripes are the moral compass of baseball, they will never ever let this go, and likely take it to the grave. Other bastions of the unwritten rules (aka self-righteous players too stupid to try to game the system) also are still upset about it, and need to stop berating Carlos Correa.
It’s not his fault he made millions and won a title with the help of a Ponzi scheme. Maybe if the Yankees had been better at stealing signs, they could’ve bucked this current title drought. This may read like I’m pro-Houston, yet I promise, it’s all anti-New York.
At the end of the day, season, and era of cheating, the onus to catch the bad guys falls on those in charge. Perhaps if the commish updated the rulebook accordingly, Houston would’ve known better.
Instead, they took an ambiguous rule and interpreted it as loosely as possible. “Sorry, I didn’t know I couldn’t do that” was such a great punchline to that Dave Chappelle joke because claiming ignorance is quintessentially American.
Be it using AI for an opening credits sequence during a writer’s strike, using exploitative labor to build generational wealth, using people’s personal information to sell digital ads, or using cellphones and trash cans to steal signs, this was no different than any other offense that hadn’t yet been criminalized. And the fact that the players got off with immunity? You could characterize their actions as brazen, but I’d use brave, and I’m sorry, I thought we were living in the land of the free.
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