Former pitcher Jack McDowell has roped the Chicago White Sox into the cheating scandal and has brought some notable names with him.
Former Cy Young Award winner Jack McDowell couldn’t take it anymore. With harsh penalties being doled out across the league for cheating, he felt he had to say something.
On Friday morning, McDowell spilled the beans while speaking with WFNZ-AM Charlotte.
Get your popcorn ready for all these stories, Black Jack is just the beginning. pic.twitter.com/0K9OaN83vv
— ESNY (@EliteSportsNY) January 17, 2020
The Chicago White Sox of the 1980s were cheaters. According to McDowell, the White Sox had a camera set up in centerfield at Comiskey Park. He put the blame for the scheme on Hall of Fame manager Tony La Russa.
McDowell not only claims that La Russa instigated this cheating scandal, but he additionally credits him for steroid use.
“He was also the head of the first team…with people doing steroids,” McDowell said.
La Russa managed multiple known steroid users, like Mark McGwire.
Interestingly enough, La Russa had also worked in the Boston Red Sox front office each of the last two seasons. The MLB recently caught them cheating in 2018 as well. La Russa’s now a senior advisor with the Los Angeles Angels.
If these allegations are true, it changes everything we know about baseball from the 1990s and early 2000s. Was La Russa cheating in the 2006 NLCS against the New York Mets?
During that series, Mets closer Billy Wagner, a Cy Young candidate that year, suddenly couldn’t pitch. Right-hander Jeff Suppan and Yadier Molina, who had just six home runs that year, both hit game-changing home runs in that series. Was that because the Cardinals were cheating?
If a Hall of Fame manager is one of the pioneering cheats in the game, who can fans even trust? It feels like no integrity remains in baseball. Thank you, Jack McDowell, for taking a stand and telling MLB and it’s fans about how rampant cheating has always been.
It’s about time the league faced the music for its inability to curb cheating.
