Dodgers Face Accusations of Cheating in New Book

This isn't just an accusation of cheating. This is an accusation of collusion between the Dodgers and MLB — "They got caught by Major League Baseball and Major League Baseball did nothing." This sort of accusation doesn't even pass the smell test — what motivation would the league have to look the other way when LA cheated while punishing the Astros and Red Sox?

But wait, there's more!

This one takes the conspiracy one step further. Chase Utley (who wasn't on the roster for the 2018 postseason) worked with an MLB official to steal signs. And a "Red Sox source" knew about it because apparently they were so open about it they didn't even try to hide it.

Every time anyone has accused the Dodgers, either it's nebulous "they do the same stuff" accusations or specific accusations from people who don't understand the differences between legal sign-stealing or illegal sign-stealing. The first of these accusations falls right into that first category, no details, no one willing to go on the record, just "they is cheaterz!"

The second accusation feels like a Ralph Wiggum bit. "Chase Utley and an MLB official were in the closet stealing signs and Joc Pederson saw the signs and one of the signs looked at him!"

To be clear, the Astros had on-the-record accusers detailing exactly what happened, which was confirmed by video evidence and admissions from the guilty parties. The closest the Dodgers have come to being accused on the record was former big-leaguer Logan Morrison, who said, "I know from first hand accounts that the Yankees, Dodgers, Astros, and Red Sox all have used film to pick signs." Of course, what Morrison seems to not understand is that using film to decipher signs is legal; deciphering in real time (like the Red Sox did) is illegal, and using live video (rather than "film") to steal signs and pass them along in real time (like the Astros did) is illegal.

The problem with nebulous, anonymous accusations is they don't allow intelligent people to look into them. The fact that Logan Morrison doesn't know what's legal and what isn't doesn't make anyone a cheater, but at least he was willing to go on the record with his accusations so smarter people could look and say, "Oh, he just doesn't understand what's allowed and what isn't."

An anonymous source saying the Dodgers are "the biggest cheaters in the whole [expletive] industry" with no details is nothing. Mike Fiers put his name and details on his accusations, and multiple sources corroborated his accusations. That's how this process works.

Anything less is just an attempt to sell a book.