Cheaters, prospering

Welp. Guess we know where the prime suspect in Deflategate is going to land, the Blob's disturbing speculation of the other day not withstanding. And he won't even have to change zip codes.

Tom Brady to the Red Sox!

You heard it here first, America.

Tongue in cheek, of course, but where better for a notorious cheater to go than to the Red Sox, who are now on the griddle for cheating themselves? And, even more Patriots-like, doing so in the midst of outrageous prosperity, and not out of desperation?

The Red Sox, see, stand accused of stealing signs via video replay during their relentless march tot he 2018 World Series title. According to a report in The Athletic, how it worked was, Boston players would go to the replay room to study the signs between opposing pitchers and catchers, then relay what they found out to the dugout.

And again, as with the Patriots, it was cheating just for cheating's sake. The Red Sox won a franchise-record 108 games and ran away with the AL East in 2018, then swept the Yankees and beat the Astros in five games to reach the World Series, then beat the Dodgers in five games in the Series.

Of course, they did this under first-year manager Alex Cora, who ran the same sign-stealing scheme as a coach with the Astros the year prior. So you had the Cheatin' Red Sox vs. the Cheatin' Astros in the ALCS in 2018.

Yet another proud moment for the National Passed (Its) Time, in other words.

It's worth noting here that stealing signs has a long and colorful history in baseball, one that likely goes all the way back to the Burnsides stealing signs from the McClellans during the 1862 Army of the Potomac championships or some such thing. Baseball, in fact, has long been a staunch  proponent of NASCAR's foundational axiom: If you ain't cheatin', you ain't tryin'.

Nonetheless, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred needs to land on this sort of thing with both feet. If nothing else, it would provide an appealing contrast to the NFL -- which fined the Patriots couch-cushion money ($1 million) for Deflategate, and suspended Brady for the first four games of the 2015 season.

The Patriots still went 12-4 and reached the AFC title game, where they lost to the Broncos. Oh, and Brady made the Pro Bowl again.

Some deterrent.

And an object lesson for Manfred going forward, one hopes.