Believing that the Astros’ network had been compromised by a rogue hacker, Major League Baseball notified the F.B.I., and the authorities in Houston opened an investigation. Agents soon found that the Astros’ network had been entered from a computer at a home that some Cardinals officials had lived in. The agents then turned their attention to the team’s front office.
Wow. Just wow. I often had the Cardinals in high regard for their results, but now they appear more slimy thieves than champions. Yes, they won their championships on the field, but first class is first class all the time. Not just when people are looking.
It will be real interesting to see how this plays out. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if the Cardinals received heavy penalties (like loss of draft picks) for this.
I think we all need to be careful about things just yet until the full report is released. Any organization the size of a MLB baseball team could easily have some bad seeds. Even our own beloved Orange and Blue has an owner who just had to settle out of court for a civil suit he clearly was going to lose in open court. If the preliminary leaks are true (and I heard an interview with the NYT writer who penned that story yesterday), this is looking more like a few bitter individuals that ran a lucky chance using old passwords (lesson to be learned there!!) to gain access, and got in. Those individuals will almost certainly face legal issues that range up to corporate espionage. If it ends with them, and thats what actually occurred, then I think the Cardinals organization will face punishment from MLB that will be serious, but not memorable. If the stolen information was passed along to the ownership and FOm and consumed at all, I imagine there will be very severe legal and MLB-level punishment.
All that said, the Cards won on the field. IMO they remain an incredible organization whose accomplishments will not be linked to cheating.
To me, the point will be if this was a couple of low-level goof balls acting on their own or if they were carrying out orders from above. If the former, I expect penalties. If the latter, I expect severe penalties.