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Wednesday, January 08, 2020

Spygate II - Electric Boogaloo

Didja ever notice when bad news abounds, Shank is all over it? First it was the Patriots losing in the playoffs, which already put a bounce in his step. Now we have yet another late Christmas present for the Shankster:
Throw the book at ’em.

If the new report is accurate — and there is no reason to believe it is not accurate — the Red Sox are an arrogant disgrace.

World champs in 2018? Swell. At this moment, the evidence indicates that when it came to winning the big games, “Our cheaters were better than their cheaters.’’

The 2018 Red Sox were good. They probably didn’t need to cheat to get an edge. But there appears to be ample evidence that they cheated. Just as the Patriots cheated with Spygate in 2007, and most likely again in the Super Bowl-winning season of 2014 during Deflategate.

The Sox of ’18 and the Patriots of most years were better than all the other teams, but that was never good enough. In the spirit of Red Auerbach, the Red Sox and Patriots took it to the next level. They covered all the bases. They uncovered every rock. Even if it made them bottom-feeding cheaters.
Is it just me or do many (if not all) of these cheating allegations vastly overstate whatever competitive advantage you'll get from the specific cheating activity?
No one is going to strip the 2018 Red Sox of their championship banner, but everything from that season is now tainted (do I have to keep saying “if the new report is accurate”?).
Two takeaways - a) I get the clear impression from Shank's tone preceding this sentence he would definitely strip the Sox of that banner if it were up to him. b) Yes, Shank, you do have to keep saying it - it makes you look like less of a jackass if these allegations are proven false.

Last thought - I think Shank was discussing this on Zolak & Bertrand yesterday for the few limited minutes I caught it on the radio. That's classic Shank - talk about it then and do a column on the exact same subject (or vice versa) and since there's no heavy lifting involved, you're not gonna mess up your back!

And if there was ever any doubt about this...
It’s time for Rob Manfred to have his Kenesaw Mountain Landis moment. Eight Men Out. Whatever it takes.

Come down hard, Commish.

Baseball needs to get its game back under control. Time to be harsh. Time to make the punishments hurt.
Ok, one more last thought - Shank is of course referring to the 1919 Chicago White Sox, where eight players threw the World Series and received lifetime bans from baseball. Shank is ridiculously calling for the same level of punishment for people involved in enhanced sign stealing (for lack of a better phrase). It's further ridiculous when you consider the following sentence from this column:
Organic sign-stealing is cool. And fun. Nobody is better at it than Alex Cora.
But Shank wants lifetime bans for a similar behavior? Vastly overstated, this column is.

2 comments:

Jason said...

He is a fraud. If Dan has his way we are still hearing chants of 1918 since it was his calling catd so much it put him in Cooperstown. This whole thing is silly from the get go and I guarantee if this was the Patriots he is not saying the words " if this is true" and that fraud knows it.

Anonymous said...

#ClevelandRocks Danny