Cheating: Why are all the other players mum?
I’m sort of puzzled.
With all the hand-wringing and breast-beating among the baseball establishment over the issue of cheating…
Where are the players?
So far, pitcher Mike Fiers is the only salaried athlete to speak out loud about the shenanigans among the Astros — and that was only because he wound up as an opponent in the same division, and wanted his new Oakland teammates to be warned about what they would be facing in Houston.
Fiers merely obeyed what players in every sport have considered an unspoken rule for decades.
Whatever you can do to help your current team — the people handing out your paycheck — you have to speak up as a loyal employee.
If a football player knows that certain formations used by his former team almost always mean the offense will run a particular set of pass routes, he’s going to share that information.
Always.
I mean, you’re paid to win, and if you know something that makes winning more likely, this isn’t an option here…
It’s an obligation.
BUT WHERE were all the other Mike Fiers?
Well, apparently baseball players are supposed to live by some code.
You can cheat — by any method available — and you can tell your new teammates about it to keep the Astros from scoring 16 runs, but…
It still has to stay a secret.
Huh?
Listen to this piece of outrage from Jessica Mendoza, a member of the Mets front office who also does a radio gig…
“I get it, if you’re with the Oakland A’s and you were on another team, I mean, heck yeah, you better be telling your teammates: ‘Look, hey, heads up. If you hear some noises when you’re pitching, this is what’s going on,’ Mendoza said.
“But to go public, yeah, it didn’t sit well with me. And honestly it made me sad for the sport that that’s how this all got found out.
“I mean, this wasn’t something that MLB naturally investigated or that even other teams complained about, because they naturally heard about it and then investigations happened.
“It came from within. It was a player that was a part of it, that benefited from it during the regular season when he was a part of that team.
“And when I first heard about it, it hits you like any teammate would, right?
“Letting this out is something that you don’t do.
“I totally get telling your future teammates, helping them win, letting people know — but to go public with it and call them out and start all of this?
“It’s hard to swallow.”
MENDOZA’S logic is screwed up on so many levels, it’s tough knowing where to start.
Maybe with this…
As a Mets executive, whose manager (Carlos Beltran) was just fired for being part of the Astros’ scheme, Mendoza never even hints that this form of tech-cheating is wrong.
Not even when Commissioner Rob Manfred warned teams about it and said he would hammer any offenders.
Not even when people from three organizations have been fired and MLB has fined the Astros $5 million.
(It would have been a lot more, but that’s the limit according to the current CBA.)
Jessica…
Hello?
Rob Manfred, the gentleman who runs the sport where you work, has said cheating with the use of cameras or other technology is illegal in baseball.
And yet you want to blast Mike Fiers, who had no part in the Astros’ decision to break the rules, for spilling this in-house secret.
Frankly, there should have been a lot more players stepping forward to say that the game is being tainted.
On the other hand, as a club executive who is upset solely because this whole mess wasn’t kept secret from the outside world…
I’d say you’re part of the problem, Jessica.
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Steve Cameron’s “Cheap Seats” columns for The Press appear on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. He also contributes the “Zags Tracker” package on Gonzaga basketball each Tuesday.
Steve’s various tales from several decades in sports — “Moments, Memories and Madness” — run on Sundays.