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Ex Cardinal's Scouting Director Chris Correa Sentenced To 46 Months For Hacking Astros' Computer System (go.com)
New submitter yzf750 quotes a report from ESPN: A federal judge sentenced the former scouting director of the St. Louis Cardinals [Christopher Correa] to nearly four years in prison Monday for hacking the Houston Astros' player personnel database and email system in an unusual case of high-tech cheating involving two Major League Baseball clubs. "The data breach was reported in June 2014 when Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow told reporters the team had been the victim of hackers who accessed servers and proceeded to publish online months of internal trade talks," reports ESPN. "Luhnow had previously worked for the Cardinals. The FBI said Correa was able to gain access using a password similar to that used by a Cardinals employee who 'had to turn over his Cardinals-owned laptop to Correa along with the laptop's password' when he was leaving for a job with the Astros in 2011. Prosecutors have said Correa in 2013 improperly downloaded a file of the Astros' scouting list of every eligible player for that year's draft. They say he also improperly viewed notes of trade discussions as well as a page that listed information such as potential bonus details, statistics and notes on recent performances and injuries by team prospects. Authorities say that after the Astros took security precautions involving [a database called Ground Control] following a Houston Chronicle story about the database, Correa was able to still get into it. Authorities say he hacked the email system and was able to view 118 pages of confidential information, including notes of trade discussions, player evaluations and a 2014 team draft board that had not yet been completed. Federal prosecutors say the hacking cost the Astros about $1.7 million, taking into account how Correa used the Astros' data to draft players. Christopher Correa had pleaded guilty in January to five counts of unauthorized access of a protected computer from 2013 to at least 2014, the same year he was promoted to director of baseball development in St. Louis. He was fired last summer and now faces 46 months behind bars and a court order to pay $279,038 in restitution. He had faced up to five years in prison on each count."
Baseball has always been something of an individual sport. It's a battle between a pitcher and hitter, with the fielders and runners being important mostly after the ball is put into play. Sure, there are defensive alignments like the shift, pickoff attempts, and stolen bases, but most of the action with runners and fielders happens after the ball is in play. Yes, there's more emphasis on extra base hits and less on moving runners over with sacrifices. But that's because most of the time it's more advantageous to play for the extra base hit. Maybe it makes it less of a team sport, but it also means more hitting and runs. More likely, you stopped watching because of the strike and never came back.
I think the NBA is far more deserving of your criticism about sports no longer being about the team. With the exception of the Spurs, there's a lot of one-on-one plays. Even a good team like Cleveland, with multiple good offensive threats, doesn't really play as a team. There's too much of LeBron dribbling while other guys stand around. He did the same stuff in Miami. When Shaq around Kobe were winning in LA, it was still incredibly frustrating to watch. I think Kobe would have been much more effective if Shaq had gotten more touches. Shaq was around tremendous mismatch inside, and even if the double or triple team came, it would open up passing to someone like Kobe or Robert Horry for an open shot outside. The NBA is frustrating to watch.
As for the NFL, it's been poisoned by greed. I am a Cardinals fan, which means I was also a Rams fan. I strongly disliked how Stan Kroenke was allowed to destroy fan support in St. Louis by putting a historically awful product on the field while making his intentions to relocate the team to LA blatantly clear. The NFL misled St. Louis, who offered hundreds of millions of dollars in public money for a new stadium with the belief that it would be enough to ensure keeping the Rams. Then the NFL went back on their word while Kroenke and his lawyer verbally trashed St. Louis on the way out. Two teams, the Chargers and Raiders, still have unresolved stadium issues while the one city that offered lots of public money lost its team. The NFL is still a team sport, but the greed will bring down the NFL.