It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. It was the time of using technology to expedite a foundation of cheating, it was the time to maybe not do it but get left behind because everyone else was doing it. It was a trash can, it was an apple watch. The cold war of baseball, some would call it, was fought not directly on the baseball field but in a room full of NASA scientists across the MLB landscape. Yet, as of 2021 these are the facts that know:
EVERYONE WAS DOING SOMETHING IN THE GREY
Baseball has been built on the foundation of cheating. To get on Twitter and tweet some bullshit without realizing that is asinine. Just in our lifetime we’ve had; the juiced ball era, steroid era, the greenies, doctored balls and everything in between.
BASEBALL IS THE HARDEST SPORT ON PLANET EARTH. YOU FAIL SEVEN OUT OF TEN TIMES AND YOU ARE CONSIDERED A GREAT. IF YOU ONLY BRING HOME 30 PERCENT OF SALES FOR YOUR JOB YOU ARE FILLING OUT YOUR RESUME AGAIN AND YOU’RE ON LINKEDIN. OF COURSE GUYS AND TEAMS ARE GOING TO TRYING TO FIND AN EDGE. ESPECIALLY WHEN TECHNOLOGY HAS SURPASSED THE OLD DINOSAUR RULES OF BASEBALL.
So we had an arms race for who can operate more in the grey area than your counterpart, I get it. I tell my content creators every day, YOU ARE A RAPTOR IN JURASSIC PARK. GO TEST THAT FUCKING ELECTRIC FENCE EVERY ONCE IN A WHILE. If the fence is on, well you get a little zap to get your ass going. If that fence is down, now we’re cooking baby.
I do not fault the Astros, the Red Sox probably maybe idk the Yankees, the Dodgers, the Indians, the Brewers, the Rockies, ANY TEAM WHO WAS COMPETING from 2015 to 2019 for pennants ALLEGEDLY (can’t sue me for defamation, i said allegedly) IT WAS PART OF THE GAME.
I also don’t get the hate for Alex Cora or AJ Hinch, they are studs and win-at-all-cost skippers. UM HELLO we praise Nick Saban who buys every recruit in the country, we praise Bill Belichick who has been caught cheating multiple times over, we praise every NBA superstar who tampers with free agents. So the hate for Alex Cora, Jeff Luhnow, AJ Hinch, and all the dudes on the 17 team is outrageous.
THE AMERICAN PUBLIC IS THE GUILTY PARTY HERE. We live in a world of 180 characters that allows JOERANDOM6969 a public forum to speak and be heard about whatever is cool to leach on and beat down on. Where is the same energy from the general public about the 2018 Red Sox, who not only had a more advanced system but won a World Series and then perfectly implemented a fall guy system that would make Oswald and Ruby blush.
All is fair in love and war, all is fair in a world of trashcans and apple watches. I love it. Let’s keep testing that electric fence, because one day that fence won’t zap back and then we can go to work.
