 All right, so the Red Sox really get the proverbial slap on the wrist. They're not going to get punished at all. They determined that the primary culprit was not the front office nor was it manager Alex Cora or the players, but the team's video replay system operator. The league did not find that Boston's impermissible conduct continued during the 2018 postseason or 2019 regular season because they had done some sketchy stuff in 2017. Rob Manfred said the investigation included interviews with 65 witnesses, including 34 current and former Red Sox players, as well as reviews of tens of thousands of emails, text messages, video clips, and photographs. So this is what it comes down to. Cora is absolved, and his coaches are also absolved from responsibility, and they found that the team's front office effectively communicated baseball sign stealing rules to non-player staff. So that means Dave Dombrowski also gets off scot-free. So the only person who's going to be punished is the video room operator. That's it. His name is JT Watkins, and he has been banned through the 2020 playoffs. And from doing the same job in 2021, Alex Cora has been banned through 2020 and the 2020 playoffs, but only for his conduct with the Astros. And the Red Sox have lost the 2020 second round pick. So nothing. They got essentially nothing. And also, you'd have to think, Don and Peter, why was Cora fired? So you tell me that the Red Sox would not have hired Cora if they knew what he did with the Astros in 2017, because they essentially fired him for what? He didn't do anything in 2018 other than manage very well and manage and get a World Series. I guess because it was like preemptive. Maybe the Red Sox figured it will be less penalty if we fire Cora. Maybe it was just the public relations where everybody else is being let go. So I guess we got to let go of our guy. Stinks, though. Just stinks to high heaven, honestly. You could cheat and get away with it. I'm sorry. I don't care. Manfred can come on and talk about all this is significant penalties. Stop. Stop. The Astros and the Red Sox cheated and got away with it. Period. Done. End of sentence. I'm confused. Yeah, but one thing, though, Don, and I said this at the time. I don't think that what the Red Sox did was nearly as egregious as the Astros. I know Yankee fans don't want to hear that, but it simply wasn't. Well, it just wasn't. Here's what they did. They had communication from the replay room to the dugout to the base runner to the hitter, which is a lot less direct, according to Ken Rosenthal, and flagrant than what the Astros did. It is a very, very tough interpretation of cheating. I think that what they did was gamesmanship. I really do. They decoded the signs, and then they really couldn't do anything with them until somebody got on second base. But then that's a different situation, Michael, because then Rob Manfred could say, listen, we filed an undergamesmanship, and so we're not going to do anything. No, they acknowledged it as cheating and punished one person and lost a draft pick. So Manfred admitted that it was cheating. He disagrees with you. He believes that this falls under the category of cheating. Is it nearly as bad as what the Astros did? No. So the fact that it's less punishment than what Houston got kind of makes sense. But in the final analysis, two teams, one championships, cheated in order to do it and got away with it. Because you're telling me the players didn't know this information? They knew they were getting the information. The league said that 30 players said they had no knowledge of such behavior, that he was decoding signs during the game via the replay system. MLB investigators talked to six witnesses who observed Watkins' writeout signs during the game and 11 said that Watkins communicated sign information in a way that indicated he obtained it during the game. Four witnesses said Watkins used gestures or notes to communicate to them sign sequence information when a major league employee assigned to watch over a video room was present. So there was somebody there from the major leagues and they were doing it right in front of his face. My opinion seems to be about the whole thing in general, Michael. It just stinks. Well, Manfred wrote that Watkins admitted he communicated sign information during games to players, but that he said when he did, so it was based on old information not newly discovered during that same game. Similarly, if a baseron had decoded signs from second base and reported the information back to him, Watkins would circulate that information to other players the investigation found. In fact, he asserted that players were aware that they were supposed to routinely provide him with sign information gathered when they were on second base. So then why is he suspended? If he didn't do anything wrong. He just seems like a patsy, doesn't he? You got somebody's got to be punished for this. Can't touch the players. And it's a little weird though, too. I mean, I like Alex Cora, OK? So I'll put that out front. Alex Cora engineered something so beautifully done in 2017 so wickedly smart that the Astros won the World Series. So he became the manager of the Red Sox and never ever thought of doing it there. Does that make any sense? No. So we knew the Red Sox were going to get less, right? Because we were warned of that from the very beginning. Yep. But basically nothing. You know, this guy, I guess in effect loses his job because I guess he won't be asked back after the suspension is over. I would assume. He could be. I mean, he could be, but can I ask a question? So they're saying, Michael, that the only way the Red Sox cheated was this dude, the analytic film dude? It was, I'm trying to understand. This is the only guy. It was his operation a random, not random, but a guy who's not at a super high level. The front office had nothing to do with it. Cora had nothing to do with it. None of the coaches knew. This rogue JT Watkins, he's the only guy. I don't understand. How is that possible? Why not just say no one did anything then? I mean, it's not possible. But again, this is the fallacy, the joke of this whole thing. Even if he found the players were responsible, you can't do anything. Manfred can't touch the players. That's why this whole thing is a joke. So Manfred said in requiring the Red Sox to forfeit a draft pick, he said, quote, the club must be held accountable, particularly since the club may have benefited from Watkins conduct. And again, Watkins vehemently denies that he did anything wrong. And I don't know who they're going by to actually whack them for this year and next year. But you tell me the coaches and the manager of the team had no idea what was going on. I mean, I can't stand up straight in the Red Sox dugout at Fenway Park. It's so small and cramped. There's no way that somebody could pass gas down the end of the outfield side of the dugout. And on the first base side of the home plate side, they would smell it. That's how small that dugout is. There's no way that they didn't know. I'm not saying they should get whacked because I have been gone on record saying, I don't think that what they did was egregious. But you can't tell me that Alex had no idea what was going on. But again, Michael, that's not the issue. Baseball claims something happened. If baseball issued a statement today believing, saying, we don't really think it was cheating, that more under the title of gamesmanship, then you could agree with them. And maybe I can agree with them, we can move on. They're acknowledging that something was done wrong. But it still goes unpunished. And why? Who are you going to punish? Can't touch the players. We've already acknowledged that from the Astro scandal. You can't touch Cora. He's already been fired. So it's just easier for them to just say the coaches weren't involved because Cora's already the guy that would be disciplined and he's already out of a job. Can't touch the players. So that's why this whole thing's a joke anyway. How about a little hot take? Want a little hot take? Please. Alex Cora is the manager of the Red Sox in 2021. Probably could be. We expected that from the beginning. He's just, yep, he's just holding the place. They love Alex Cora. They don't like him, Peter. Love him. They love him. Wow. And I'm sure that parting ways with him was difficult because they think he's a great manager. And you know what? Around baseball, he's thought of as a really brilliant baseball man. Well, guess what? He's not the only Cora to have a big day because what a night from Joey Cora last night, am I right? I mean, he only homer three times during the regular season. Goes yard in an exciting game. Woof. Now in terms of the players, Manfred said he would have, he would not have had any interest in disciplining players in this particular instance, noting this is not a case in which I would have otherwise considered imposing discipline on players. So even if they weren't given immunity, he's saying he would not have disciplined them. It's easy to say that. It's easy to say that when you know your championships. Two teams, one championships. And really they still have championships. I don't think the Red Sox should have been stripped of it anyway, but the Astros certainly should have been. So I mean, it's a very, very benign punishment. For, again, the Red Sox get lumped into this and I agree with you. It's not nearly as awful as what the Astros did. It is one of the biggest scandals on the field in sports history. I mean, a championship was one beat, you know, the New York Yankees who were probably the most popular team in North America, or at least certainly in baseball. And it went unpunished to the point, Michael, where, you know what? I don't know if it discourages anybody from trying it again. Just make sure that the players are the headpin to it because they can't be touched. It's just, it's so frustrating. And I'm not even a Yankee fan, Michael, but I just think it's frustrating. Even the great Tom Brady served a four game suspension, a quarter of the season for the Flate Gate. Yep, because you know what? Goodell didn't give anybody any immunity. He's not afraid of the players. Like in baseball, they have a CBA that they have to negotiate. He doesn't want to deal with this. But, and I could be wrong about this, Michael. I think you'll probably disagree with me. I think the whole immunity was because he knew we couldn't touch him anyway. I think that's a very convenient thing to say. Well, I wanted a really thorough investigation, so I gave the players immunity so I can get all the information possible to have the investigation. Who cares about your investigation if nobody ends up getting punished at the end of the day anyway? So I think the immunity is just an excuse for knowing that he was completely impotent during this whole thing and he couldn't touch the players anyway. So I don't even buy the immunity. I think that whole thing's made up anyway.