Right, it wasn't just them for sure. It's like the PED's, MLB ignored it instead of doing anything until it got too late. It's too late again. On field sign stealing is fine, anything else isn't. There's a lot of sand on the field and there are lines there too.
I need to learn more before I get to the "MLB looked the other way" conclusion.
In 2017 they issued a league memo saying GMs & Managers would be held culpable and there would be hell to pay if teams were caught using electronic surveillance to steal signs. This following the Red Sox (under manager John Farrell) getting caught using Apple Watches.
That seemed to me to imply a "we know its happening, what's done is done, but it need to stop now." Being directed at team management instead of players avoided union pushback and really left it up to the commisioner. If they wanted to sweep it under the rug they could have blamed the boogeyman of "collective bargaining."
Could they have done more to make sure, probably. Should they have done more, apparently so. Was Manfred probably naive in thinking that memo would get the message across, probably. At this point I hope the message is clear.
All that said, I'm so far glad this seems like it was handled far better than the Mitchel report / steroids. To me it seems Manfred said "I want the truth" and indemnified the players to get it. The result was 9 pages of here is what happened, how it started, who was involved, how they accomplished it, and the price they will pay.
Why not put communications in their helmets? I long for the pre electronic days of no instant replay challenges, and reviews. I hope I don't live long enough to see an electronic umpire. All of the tech, be it cheating or five angles of slow mo taint the flavor of the game for me.
