No one likes a cheater. And no one likes to rub it in your face more than sports fans, when they find out that you are a cheater. St Louis Cardinals followers are about to find out that their team has been branded.
The baseball headline of the week concerns a case opened by the FBI that Cardinals employees hacked into the computers of the Houston Astros and lifted scouting reports, trade details and privately developed statistical data.
Computer hacking, unlike stealing catchers’ signals or doctoring a baseball with suntan lotion, is a federal offence. That makes this one a bigger deal than the usual on-field shenanigans.
Published reports suggest that the alleged spying may stem from a personal grudge against Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow, a former Cardinals executive who has successfully transformed Houston into contenders.
Whatever the reason, baseball fans no longer must grudgingly admire St Louis for their winning ways and recent World Series championships (2006, 2011).
The disdain may not reach the level NFL fans maintain for the New England Patriots, that sport’s poster child for cheating. But as the Patriots have discovered, it may not matter that these breaches of integrity have little to do with the on-field action.
What matters is that fans of other teams now have an excuse to wave off the successes and greet the Cardinals with the magic words: Winners never cheat, cheaters never win.
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