While the Astros seemed to be the most brazen of baseball's cheaters and are deservedly drawing the scorn of fellow players and fans as spring training continues, it does occur to me that they are possibly taking too much of the collective heat for a multi-team sign-stealing scandal.
The Red Sox, after all, also likely cheated at least in some fashion on the way to winning the 2018 World Series, one year after the Astros banged their way to a garbage championship.
But while MLB has finished its investigation into the Astros and levied punishments — again, drawing the ire of plenty, and for good reason — the investigation into Boston's shenanigans remains ongoing. That and the notion that Red Sox perhaps didn't cheat as bad as Houston did has made for a pretty lopsided result in the blame game whereby the Astros are getting, what, 90% to 99% of the condemnation.
I'm not saying it should be an even 50-50 split, but shouldn't the Red Sox be catching more of the criticism and wink-wink jokes?
Ah, enter Yankees pitcher Zack Britton. He was mic'd up during a spring training game between the Yankees and Red Sox on Tuesday and cracked this line: "You guys got the Red Sox on this broadcast? They know what's coming? Are you feeding them anything?"
Let this serve as a reminder to spread the blame around more evenly, particularly once the report on the Red Sox comes out in the next few weeks.
Kudos to Britton for being the hero we didn't know we needed.
