Tampa Bay Rays: It’s OK to be angry about cheating

Cheat-gate ’20 has revealed the Tampa Bay Rays have likely been extremely impacted by the cheating cheaters of the American League.

As more and more details of the ridiculous cheating schemes roll out, Tampa Bay Rays’ fans feel more and more cheated as we go. Let’s run through what we know and why it’s okay to be angry. Why it’s okay to believe ridiculous assertions you may hear. Why it’s okay to not listen to excuses anymore. More importantly, why everyone losing their jobs deserve it.

The Astros ran a high-tech cheating operation to relay catcher signs from a centerfield camera to a monitor near the dugout. A player would relay the sign by banging on the trash can to indicate the pitch-type to the batter.

This ploy was reportedly a player-driven scheme that the manager and general manager allowed to happen. Manager AJ Hinch and GM, Jeff Luhnow have since been suspended for one year and terminated by the Astros.

Bench Coach during the 2017 season (in which the Astros began cheating and also won a World Series…yayyy) Alex Cora, was named as the only coach to have been directly involved in the scheme.

He instructed technicians on setting the feed up to a monitor just outside the dugout. Cora was then hired by the Boston Red Sox to manage their team to a World Series in 2018. He also evidently helped them set up their own “high-tech” cheating system. He is no longer the manager of the Red Sox.

Buzzers?

It makes this whole stupid scene look really suspicious.

Jose Altuve is evidently going on the defensive about it, but nobody is listening. You don’t deserve to be heard out anymore. 

It’s okay to be suspicious. It’s okay to be angry. After they went to the lengths they did to cheat the game, this sounds pretty reasonable. The Astros and Red Sox have earned this suspicion.

They all come off as scumbags and it’s okay to be mad. It’s okay to wonder if the Rays were cheated last year if they were cheated by Alex Cora and the Sox in 2018. It’s okay to be mad and believe the things you hear because they have all earned it.

If I was told the Red Sox or Astros put a sedative on the rosin bag to drug opposing pitchers, at this point…I’m open to it. 

How much did this impact other players over the last few years? How much did it impact the Tampa Bay Rays over the past few seasons? Would the Rays have made the postseason in 2018 without all the cheating in Boston?

Would Tyler Glasnow have dominated the Astros like he had everyone else in the league and sent the Rays to the ALCS?

Baseball is a great game. I recall audibly gasping the first time I ever saw a Major League field in St. Louis. I walked up the stairs of the old Busch Stadium, out of the shadow of the bleachers and into the sun. It was the most beautiful patch of green grass and dirt I had ever seen. Baseball is more than a game to this country and it has once again been disrespected by a bunch of greedy scumbags.

It’s okay to be angry about it.

I thought we’d end on a fun tweet directly from the Astros’ twitter account from last season.

This story will have a happy ending with the Rays roll their WAR Machine through the American League in 2020. They won’t have their little schemes to help them anymore! #RaysUP