This is why I’m not certain that the players and Cora understood that what they were doing was cheating, as opposed to everybody-does-it sign-stealing gamesmanship.I don't see how it's possible to defend Cora. When this story broke there was a huge outcry and a call for significant penalties for the Astros. There was also a thread in this forum where posters proposed things like a ban from the playoffs. How could Cora be oblivious to the risks he was taking on behalf of the organization? Did he believe that if they were busted, he could just say "Well, all teams do the same thing" and everything would be OK? Did he believe that, although the rule of thumb is that no more than 2 people can keep a secret and that's only if one of them is dead, 68 people could do so?...
I explained this in the other thread, but basically, the league’s 2017 warning focused on banning the use of electronic devices to transmit info between the video room and the dugout, [edit: not between a CF camera and a video room, which was and still is legal.] It also banned using the video info at all, but the emphasis at the time was on AppleWatches and phones.
It’s conceivable that players thought moving video monitors closer to the dugout made *non-electronic* transfer of sign-stealing info — which seems to have been common —easier and quicker and therefore in compliance with the 2017 memo, which probably none of them read.
Here’s the thing: most cheaters make an effort to hide their activities. Physically moving monitors closer to the dugout is impossible to hide. So is banging on trash cans, which aren’t electronic devices.
Im not trying to excuse cheating. I’m trying to understand how the Astros could have been so blatant about it. Stupidity and ignorance seem more likely explanations than hubris.
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