The local coffee place that we’ve been getting pick-up orders about once a week during this period of time has a flavoring called “french toast,” and look, I was never going to get it. I like some vanilla, but that’s really as wild as I get. But for whatever reason, after weeks of seeing it on the list and wondering, I figured, what the heck. I’ll get a little french toast in my coffee today. Annnnnd … it’s indulgent, baby.
• Former Red Sox legend David Ortiz, who wrapped his career in 2016, says it was BS that the Red Sox got punished for doing something “everybody is doing” – i.e., using live video to decode signs and relay them to players. To be sure, my reaction to the punishment was that it was clear MLB believes a whole lot of other teams have done the same thing, but I wouldn’t go so far as to say every single team was doing it.
• Indeed, Yu Darvish responded flatly that, while he knows every team/player says they aren’t doing it, no, seriously, the Cubs do NOT do that:
みんなやっている事って言ってるけどカブスは間違いなくやってない。
【MLB】批判浴びるRソックスにオルティス氏は擁護 「俺はそれをサイン盗みとは呼ばない」(Full-Count)#Yahooニュース https://t.co/kObDUoPYpH
— ダルビッシュ有(Yu Darvish) (@faridyu) April 25, 2020
• The Cubs have been consistent and bold on this front, previously quite clear that they haven’t stolen signs electronically. Have we seen them relaying signs at second base (or at least pretending to)? Yup. I’ve seen it many times. But using video to do it? Nope.
• In any case, the fact that Ortiz believes using live video to decode signs is still so prevalent is all the more reason for MLB to ensure it cannot (easily) happen going forward, including by moving video replay officials – and that room – far away from the dugout.
• Or, as Joel Sherman suggests, you could just do away with teams’ replay rooms entirely, and leave challenges up to managers exclusively (that would be fine by me):
https://t.co/TBLjQl9GjZ… With #Astros #RedSox scandals we will never have peace on everything that happened/everyone who should be punished, so some thoughts on what can be controlled: Rules to try to stop it from ever happening again.
— Joel Sherman (@Joelsherman1) April 25, 2020
• Sure, you could say this is just because of a large and passionate fan base, but I choose to say it’s because Wrigley Field is objectively the most beautiful place on Earth:
https://twitter.com/MLBONFOX/status/1253782638806003712
• Legend:
https://twitter.com/WatchMarquee/status/1253803043050737665
• Obligatory note that the Eero wi-fi system is on a big sale at Amazon, and it comes with a free Echo Dot right now, too. It’s what we use, and I love it. #ad
• The NFL Draft concludes today, and we’ve been covering it ferociously here.