There was definitely an “organizational culture” element to the punishments here. I don’t know if it’s strike two, but anyone in the Astros organization from prior to this season will be dealt with much more harshly than someone in another organization. That’s a given.
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The rationale is they’re happy to blame Cintron for instigating the incident.
‘instigated’ is the word Nightengale used in his tweet breaking the news and I’m 100% certain MLB used that language when they gave him the story.
And if your response is ‘that’s no rationale’ then you’d be correct and I’d simply remind everyone that this is MLB we’re talking about.
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Look what you made me do to you!
Rob Manfred is the worst commissioner in sports, and it isn’t close. A hitting coach that verbally instigated an incident just received a suspension more than three times longer than a player that rushed the opposing team’s dugout by himself in response during a time when everyone is to be social distancing. The coach also never laid his hands on any players from the opposing team.
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When I was growing up we used to say stick and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me. I always thought that meant something but now I realize it’s just nonsense.
Really: The Cintron suspension is because he yelled something obnoxious from the dugout? That’s it?
Yep.
So we’ve established the precedent that yelling something obnoxious and insulting from the dugout (I don’t know what he said) gets you a 53 game suspension in a 162 game season. Charging into the opposing team’s dugout to fight? Not so much.
Soon every team will employee a rabbit-eared goon to charge at the opposing team’s coaches.
It’s another reason why Rob Manfred is the easily the worst commissioner in professional sports.
The Astros cheated in 2017 and he’s pissed and I get that. The inept and clueless response to Taubman incident and the failed “apology” in spring training haven’t helped.
But it seems personal – the reference to the Taubman incident in the sign stealing report was gratuitous and did not have anything to do with the issue at hand. From this homer perspective, this punishment seems targeted against the Astros.
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I’ll admit that Manfred is the worst but I still hate Selig more and suspect I always will.
Move the Brewers to the AL!
I suspect that Taubman is the real personal grudge that Manfred holds against the Astros. He was well aware that electronic spying was a widespread problem and was taking steps to solve it quietly, but the Fiers story forced him to deal with it in the open. Singling out the Astros for cheating is more “nothing personal, just business.” Advancing a narrative equivalent to “The Astros were the only team that ever used steroids” protects MLB’s image and obscures just how corrupt it was/is behind the scenes.
Personally, I think the severity of the Cintron suspension is a make-up call in response to the backlash to the Joe Kelly suspension.
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Kelly’s suspension was reduced from 8 to 5 games on appeal.
Perhaps this is an irrational thought (I have many), but I am convinced if Taubman had kept his fucking mouth shut, and the Yankee victory celebration would have been ordinary, we would have won the WS, and none of this other stuff would have happened.
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100% agree.
The World Series might have gone better, but I don’t think Fiers cared about Taubman one way or another and the Athletic story had been in the works for months.
The media cared. We have been told here repeatedly no one was doing anything with Fiers story until Taubman incited the riot.
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