So, this morning while checking to see if the Rangers had traded Chris Kreider, I stumbled upon this piece in the New York Post sports section: "Mike Fiers getting death threats after exposing Astros cheating."
Oh my God! What the hell is going on here? It's bad enough that we have a president who threatens whistle blowers in the government, now we have a professional ball player who blew the whistle on the worst scandal to hit major league baseball since the 1919 Black Sox receiving threats? And for the record, it WAS! Compared to what the Houston Astros did, Barry Bonds was guilty of eating too many protein bars.
Former Red Sox player David Ortiz called Fiers a "snitch." Another former Red Sox and Mets player Pedro Martinez called Fliers "a bad teammate." He then added, "Whatever happens in the clubhouse stays in the clubhouse, and Fiers broke the rules."
What is this, Vegas? You see something illegal going on, but because it's your team you look the other way? That's the exact rationale that Trump is using to justify purging the Executive Branch of anyone he suspects of being disloyal. Either you swear complete allegiance to him or you're gone. Just the other day, he fired his acting director of intelligence for testifying before Congress that Russia is once again meddling in our elections. The person he appointed as his replacement is a political hack with no experience in intelligence.
Is this now the new normal in America? Hear no evil, see no evil? Keep your mouth shut if you know what's good for you? This president's blatant contempt for basic decency and the rule of law has so thoroughly worked its way through the fabric of society that even professional athletes who do the right thing are not immune from its effects.
I wonder how Ortiz and Martinez would feel if it was their team that had lost to the Astros in the playoffs rather than the Yankees or Dodgers? Instead of condemning Fiers, they and every player in every sport should be applauding him. When something like this happens, it undermines the integrity of the game itself. As a fan, you need to know that the team you root is competing on a level playing field. Otherwise, you might as well be watching professional wrestling.
How did we get to this point? How did we allow the values of a Tony Soprano to define us as a people? When unethical behavior is condoned, when the golden rule is replaced by anything goes, what's next? Does someone have to die before we snap out of the spell we're under and remove the malignancy that is growing inside the White House? I hope not.
When I was younger, we used to have a saying that went like this: "It's not what you know, it's who you know." Now more than ever, it has become an axiom for America.
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