A Yankees sign-stealing and cover-up conspiracy would be a gift that unites baseball fans
By Sam Dunn
If the MLB helped conceal a Yankee cheating scheme, we all win.
These are times of strife. Remember the global pandemic? Yeah, it’s still there. Protest demonstrations across the country? You bet. South Park? Leaving Hulu for HBO Max.
Indeed, there are precious few respites to be had, especially given Major League Baseball’s utter inability to negotiate with its players in good faith on a plan to get the 2020 season started. There is, however, a potential ray of hope that could unite fans far and wide, perhaps like never before.
Per Evan Drelich of The Athletic, court documents from a 2017 lawsuit allegedly reveal that the New York Yankees had a “serious” sign-stealing scheme, and the MLB kept the worst of the details under wraps.
Judge orders 2017 MLB letter to Yankees unsealed; plaintiffs say it details sign stealinghttps://t.co/TuYEq9jBsJ
— Evan Drellich (@EvanDrellich) June 13, 2020
New York Yankees stealing signs would unite baseball fans in their hatred
Folks.
I’ve read enough Facebook comments sections to know that hard-working, salt-of-the-earth Americans love two things: conspiracy theories and hating the Yankees. If this blockbuster lives up to the hype, we get both — at a time in which baseball itself is crying out in pain and fans are perhaps more teeth-gnashingly cynical than the worst of the steroid era’s fallout.
To be fair, of course, details in this letter could be very much embarrassing to the Yankees organization without putting them in the same category as the punished 2017 Astros or 2018 Red Sox, notes insider Andy Martino.
The letter, if unsealed, could be embarrassing for Yankees because it reminds public they were fined in ‘17. But if you’re waiting on details of an Astros/Red Sox-type scheme, you’ll be disappointed.
— Andy Martino (@martinonyc) June 13, 2020
At this point, fans itching for any opportunity to dump on the Evil Empire should be all-in hoping that this letter absolutely does reveal a deep 2017 cheating scandal in the Bronx, and that Major League Baseball covered up the extent of it. Cross all those fingers, toes, and shoelaces. Hating on the Astros for a tainted World Series title is one thing, but the sheer novelty of casting them as the enemy always had a strange quality to it.
Whereas hating the Yanks is like buying a loaf of bread.
And it’s the one thing that can unite the clans of baseball fandom in this anxious epoch.
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