Where to start with this one. I guess we start at the beginning.
So, Ryan Spaeder is a MLB analyst and author of "Incredible Baseball Stats". He's been around the game for a while and, for the most part, does a solid job reporting on it. Well, that was until yesterday.
On June 16th, Spaeder released a TON of cheating allegations on different teams throughout the league. I'd put up each of the tweets but they have all been deleted (oh don't worry, I'll get to that). So I'll just type them out instead.
It starts off with him saying, " Everything I'm about to say has been verified by more than one player. I do not mean to burn anyone, and I love baseball... I've just had enough of this bullshit."
He then proceeded to name names. He came out and suggested that the Royals cheated during their championship season in 2015. That the Yankees had cameras set up all over the outfield that pointed at the pitchers glove in 2017-18. That the Dodgers had someone who got caught setting up cameras at Minute Maid Park during the 2017 World Series. That Chase Utley was, "the biggest cheater of all time" and that Adrian Beltre used to have someone helping him out in center field in 2017. He confirmed the Rockies stories about them sign stealing. He said the Diamondbacks used humidor balls when they were home and didn't when they were away. He even said the Twins at the old Metrodome used to open the doors in right field when they batted to create suction! On top of all that, he confirmed that the Astros sign stealing methods came from "Carlos Beltran, New York and Texas." Just bombshell stuff right here.
Now when you make allegations like this, you're gonna anger some people. In Spaeder's case, I'd imagine he angered a lot of people. So much so that he said the following...
After that, he deleted every allegation tweet he posted less than 24 hours before.
Dude, you can't just make allegations like that and then delete and basically retract everything you said. This is massive stuff that exposes all of baseball and you just run and hide after you come out with it? What kind of real journalist does that? Part of being in the journalism industry is sometimes getting down and dirty with what you're reporting on. If you can't handle all the things that come with that, then maybe don't say anything at all! Now you have even more people pissed off at you just because you couldn't handle the pressure. If other journalist throughout history acted like this, they would have never broken some of the biggest stores ever in world history. If you're an up and coming journalist or in school for journalism, do yourself a favor. Stick to your guns, believe in your story and your facts, and don't be this guy. What a joke.
If the Astros could handle the heat that came in 2020 after everyone found out about the sign stealing scandal, then you can handle a little heat that comes with reporting about other teams cheating as well. Absolutely pathetic. Stick to your stats and go cry you bum.