A letter detailing the 2015 and 2016 Yankees sign-theft investigation will be released in about a week, and Astros fans are awaiting its release just as Democrats have been awaiting the results of Robert Mueller’s Trump investigation.
The team and MLB have campaigned against the release of what has been creatively dubbed the “Yankees Letter,” and on Thursday the organization lost its appeal to keep the letter sealed. according to The Athletic.
Here’s what team president Randy Levine said about the result.
“We are disappointed with the Court of Appeal’s decision, but we respect it. However, I believe that as described in my petition, this will lead to many bad outcomes later on.”
The letter is from a lawsuit now dropped by DraftKings users who claimed that the cheating scandals involving the Red Sox, Astros and Yankees negatively impacted their daily fantasy scores. The fact that unfortunate degenerates, angry at the sports betting version of KENO taking their money, were the catalyst for the Yankees letter is my favorite part of this story. (My least favorite part is the name. We can do better than the Yankees letter.)
The content of the message is unknown, but now the public can see how MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred interpreted the findings of the investigation into the Bronx Bombers’ use of Apple Watches and video rooms to steal signs. Houston fans say so Manfred made her team a “scapegoat”. as the most egregious violator of sign-theft, and probably fantasized about the letter’s publication as much as any horny teenager fantasizes about sex stuff.
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Who knows how devastating the correspondence will be. It could end up as inconsequential as the Mueller Report (not the Yankees Washington Post letter entitled “The Mueller Report” but the actual Mueller Report), with people getting angry but not getting the punishment they deserve they wish. Brian Cashman is certainly hoping it’s over after him blamed the year Houston cheated on the team’s World Series drought – and not his ineptitude all the other seasons.
It’s really shocking that the GM has taken so long. He has survived multiple post-season and Steinbrenner meltdowns and is currently overseeing the team’s third-longest non-title run. He’s unkillable for some inexplicable, cockroachy reason.
Perhaps the letter is just an Excel printout of the Steinbrenner’s stressed books, with a handwritten note from Hal asking for leniency because he has to scrape his coffers to pay his star players. (Dwindling funds would certainly explain a lot.) I have no idea, but speculating is a lot of fun.
However, Manfred gets the biggest hit. When he gives preferential treatment to the league’s most popular franchise and downplays the extent of his cheating scandal, fans, teams, and most importantly, owners, become furious. While outraged screams from angry owners like an Old Fashioned calm me down on a Friday night, for Manfred it does the opposite.
After that, MLB handled the lockout stare into space and wait for the players to give in, more bad PR for the commish would be concerning. The caveat is that Manfred could be a nihilist who doesn’t care let alone baseball. release him See if he’s bleeding – or blinking.
Also, “Stros fans, if you think this letter will somehow absolve your team of their transgressions or silence the Yankees fans, you are delusional. When New York hasn’t used the PA system to tip pitches, nothing gets better than banging on a trash can. And even if the cheating was more obvious than previously reported, have you met Yankees fans? They won’t budge an inch, and if you get a good point, they’ll go straight to “27 rings, bitch.”
Whatever the letter says is juicy enough that Yankee Brass resorted to requesting a rarely granted “en banc” hearing, which the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals denied, according to Athletic’s Evan Drellich.
I’m not going to pretend to know what an en banc sample is (ok, it’s all about all the judges weighing, as opposed to three) or what the Yankees letter says, I just know that my interest is aroused when Big Baseball tries to keep everything quiet surrounding a cheating scandal, particularly when it involves baseball’s most famous team.
The truth will set you free — or at least strengthen your baseball arguments.
