Ripken

Yep. I've been to all of them and Flying Dog more times than I can count. There are breweries and distilleries all over Frederick.

Bring them all on. Let's build another stadium in Florida.

At least one written rule was broken. That's why the Astros were punished. Sandy Alderson, then baseball’s executive vice president of baseball operations, sent the following memo to clubs in 2001: Please be reminded that the use of electronic equipment during a game is restricted. No club shall use electronic equipment, including walkie-talkies and cellular telephones, to communicate to, or with, any on-field personnel, including those in the dugout, bullpen, field and – during the game – the clubhouse. Such equipment may not be used for the purpose of stealing signs or conveying information designed to give a club an advantage. Commissioner Rob Manfred, said it was too difficult to punish the players because it was impractical given the number involved and their degrees of participation. Further, player punishment could have prompted an appeal or grievance from the players union. In other words, Manfred never said he couldn't punish the players. If that were true, Manfred would have covered his ass with it: "Boy, I'd sure like to suspend these shameful perpetrators but unfortunately my hands are really tied by these danged inadequate MLB laws." He could have and should have punished the players but he's a coward when it comes to the union.

Bringing up cheating from decades ago only strengthens the point that these players should be punished now. It's the complete lack of deterrence then that has allowed it to continue. The Black Sox were 100 years ago. That, and a few light/random cases of cork and sandpaper aside, nothing has ever been done about cheating. Manfred needs to set the precedent. No one bats an eye when someone gets 50-80 games for substance violations. If you want cheating to continue in the next hundred years, as it has in the last hundred, then do nothing, which is the path MLB has chosen. Ignoring player punishment is the coward's way out of this.

This is the attitude that allows the cheating to continue. If you want it to stop, players have to pay. If it harms another team that's too bad. The integrity of the game is more important than anything else.

Because it's either very lightly punished or not at all. Unions and commissioners-hired-by-owners make a tight group.

Yeah, not simple, but doing nothing is terrible. I'm not in a position to see/know the evidence. And, yes, players have moved elsewhere. I don't care. It's January, teams have time to make other arrangements. It's not like some major hitter has left the Astros in the last two years and signed a big deal elsewhere (even then I wouldn't care). Altuve, Bregman, Springer and anyone else who we know benefited from this need a year off. There are some people seriously underplaying this. We will never know for sure, so we don't need the debate, but I absolutely believe Houston does not win the 17 championship without this scandal. I had no opinion of that franchise at all prior to this. There is no bias in me. Hell, you could make a case it helped the Orioles get Adley instead of picking second that year and kept the damn Yankees from winning. That certainly doesn't make it acceptable. I don't know for sure, but when you consider the league wide ramifications of this -- hirings, firings, trades, FA deals, releases, W/L records, stats, draft order, playoff participation, gate revenue, etc -- it is massive. And it happened TWO years in a row. We haven't even see the results of that clusterF yet. Cora should get a lifetime ban.

Manfred really took the coward way out of this. There should be player suspensions all over the place.

We all know they could not be fined more based on existing agreements. That's not the point some of us are making. The point is, that maximum is a joke. These are billionaire owners with teams that make enormous profits each year. $5M is nothing to them and does not punish or dissuade anything. Would you care about a speeding ticket if doing 90 in a 55 cost you $3?

Both are legit. Pray for good things to continue.

Screamin' A.

I'm a well reasoned person. The punishment seemed right to me at first but, after consuming the report and giving it some thought, it is way too lenient. The money is nothing to a billionaire owner, so forget that. The one year suspensions aren't much either. A GM can keep doing his job while suspended; he just does it more behind the scenes. IMO, Hinch was grossly overrated anyway but after a year he could have returned like nothing happened. It wasn't MLB that fired them, it was the Houston owner. All this really comes down to are the picks. Four high picks is certainly a penalty but it's not that severe. Four picks is nothing compared to a championship. No player was punished. It's not nearly enough and I believe it's because of embarrassment to the game, widespread abuse, and fear of the MLBPA. Short of stripping a title, which I do not believe MLB can do, lifetime bans should be handed out to several people, fines should be 10X what they are, pick loss should go for several years (or possibly no picks for two entire drafts), and players known to have cheated should get a one year suspension. Let Houston go 38-124 next year, fielding a team of Rule 5 players and other cast-offs.

I've attended a lot of Keys games the last ten years. Mountcastle is the best hitter I've seen there.

God, no, not after this, and I think he sucks anyway.

Hinch should have been fired on the damn field after puking away game 7 with horrid decisions.