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The St. Louis Cardinals have been one of, if not the most successful franchises in baseball since the new millennium, winning two World Series titles and reaching the National League Championship Series nine times. St. Louis has been praised for always doing things the “Right Way”, but it was something they got caught doing the wrong way that is making headlines.
According to the New York Times, the team is being investigated by the FBI for allegedly hacking into the Houston Astros‘ database, which contained information about different players and statistics as well as internal discussions about potential trades.
The suspicion, according to the same report, is that Cardinals team executives hacked the system in an attempt to pester now-Astros general manger, once-polarizing-Cardinals front office executive Jeff Luhnow. He left the team after 2011 to take over in Houston.
If these allegations prove to hold some weight, it could completely tarnish the Cardinals’ reputation as the model MLB franchise. Even though this infraction may have just been committed by vengeful front office executives, it could shed light on other scandals, much in the way Spygate and Deflategate did for the New England Patriots.
Perception is everything, and if this scandal ends up being serious enough to convince people that other infractions may have taken place by this organization, their reputation will be forever tarnished.
Again, whether they did commit other infractions or not isn’t the point. If fans believe they are cheaters, that’s the reputation they’re going to have.
When teams have success like the Cardinals and Patriots have over the past decade plus, people are going to poke and prod and make sure everything is on the up and up. When it’s not, as it hasn’t been for the Patriots and as it appears it is not for Red Birds in this situation, people start to question how they got successful in the first place.
The truth is, each organization was one of the best run in their respective sports regardless of their scandal. However, teams that feel like they’re above the rules deserve to be reprimanded, and the biggest punishment the Cardinals could receive from this situation is the loss of their reputation as the best-run organization in baseball.
