No doubt about it, for better or for worse, a good scandal will draw attention, heighten people’s interest, and keep tongues wagging.

In the doldrums of January on the day of the NCAA National Football Championship game and days before the NFL determined its participants for the February 2 Super Bowl, Major League Baseball crashed the pigskin hold on the sports pages of America by rolling out its findings in an investigation that had been going on behind the scenes since the conclusion of last October’s World Series.

Although it may not rival the revelation of the 1919 Chicago White Sox ‘fixing’ of the World Series against the Cincinnati Reds, or the lifetime ban from baseball imposed against Pete Rose in 1989 for his wagering on Reds games when he was their manager, the action taken by MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred against the Houston Astros for their involvement in the technology-aided stealing of opponent signs is unprecedented in baseball history.

In Manfred’s ruling, handed down January 13, the Astros were hard hit. Manfred suspended General Manager Jeff Luhnow and Field Manager A.J. Hinch for the entire 2020 season without pay, fined the team the maximum $5 million allowed by MLB rules, and took away the team’s first and second-round picks in both the 2020 and 2021 amateur baseball draft. Within hours of Manfred’s ruling, Houston Astros owner Jim Crane fired both Luhnow and Hinch, the men who crafted the team’s 2017 World Series Championship team.

As has been thoroughly reported in media outlets, the penalties came as the result of the Astros’ action in using today’s technology to steal and relay the catchers’ signals to the pitcher of what pitch was going to be delivered to the batter at the plate.

This is indeed a modern conundrum. Sign stealing has long been a part of baseball, notably when the catcher doesn’t do a good enough job of hiding the signs he is giving to the pitcher. Throughout the game’s long history, some coaches have gained esteemed notoriety for their ability to master this unique skullduggery. But after the 2016 season (when the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox were suspected of using Apple watches to steal signs), MLB issued a set of guidelines specifically outlawing the use of technology to steal signs. Now, at least two teams, the Astros in 2017 and the Red Sox in 2018, were investigated for violating these guidelines.

The day after the Astros fired Luhnow and Hinch the Red Sox quickly followed suit and parted ways with their manager, Alex Cora, who had been linked to both team’s improprieties. Cora served at the Astros bench coach in 2017 and was described in Manfred’s report as the dugout leader in the team’s sign stealing procedures. He then joined the Red Sox in 2018, the current subject of MLB’s sign-stealing suspicions.

While Manfred came down hard on Luhnow and Hinch, none of the Astros players were singled out for any punishment, although Carlos Beltran, a player with Houston in 2017 and now the manager of the New York Mets, was described as being an active participant in the dugout scheme.

Manfred wrote the following in his report: “Assessing discipline of players for this type of conduct is both difficult and impractical. It is difficult because virtually all of the Astros’ players had some involvement or knowledge of the scheme, and I am not in a position based on the investigative record to determine with any degree of certainty every player who should be held accountable, or their relative degree of culpability. It is impractical given the large number of players involved and the fact that many of those players now play for other clubs.”

The Commissioner’s words may ring true, and no doubt his integrity holds more creditability than that of the previously banned Rose. Still, the former hit-king made a self-serving but obvious observation regarding the non-punishment of players who may have been involved.

“I couldn’t imagine being involved in a scheme like this,” Rose responded. “What’s going to happen to Beltran? Can he manage the Mets now? He was a ringleader, right? The whole thing is getting technical. I just can’t imagine how many people are really involved. I can’t imagine doing something like that.

“Most players don’t give a damn what happens to an organization, as long as it doesn’t happen to them. If I’m a player and every time I bat, I’m getting signs from the dugout; I’m just as guilty as the guy who is giving me the signs.”

Since the announcement, I’ve heard sports commentators’ decree that baseball should ban all technology from the game. How’s that for a 21st-century proclamation?

It was just six years ago that the game was heralded for introducing instant replay to the game. It was that action leading to TV monitors in the dugout and manager’s challenges that hold up the game while umpires huddle with some office in New York City before rendering a call. Now baseball is on the verge of using this same technology to introduce ‘robot umpires’ for ball and strike calls.

Some have mocked baseball as a slow-moving game. But the fast pace of modern technology has now brought the game to its ‘integrity knees.’ Could it be that it is OK to ‘steal’ as long as you don’t use a weapon? Just asking.