THE TEAM WITH the best record in baseball this season are now under the investigation by the FBI, for hacking into the database of another MLB.
The St Louis Cardinals, 11 time World Series champion, and second only to the New York Yankees, are alleged to have hacked into the databases of the Houston Astros, which contained scouting reports, statistics and potential trade options.
The FBI’s Houston field office have issued subpoenas to the Cardinals front office, with the hacking believed to be targeted at Astros’ General Managwer Jeff Luhnow, who formerly worked with the Cardinals.
MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred has said through a spokesperson that the league are fully aware of the investigation.
They say the league “has been aware of and has fully cooperated with the federal investigation into the illegal breach of the Astros’ baseball operations database.”
The Cardinals did not deny the charge in a statement released last night, merely confirming they are co-operating with the investigation.
“The St. Louis Cardinals are aware of the investigation into the security breach of the Houston Astros’ database. The team has fully cooperated with the investigation and will continue to do so. Given that this is an ongoing federal investigation, it is not appropriate for us to comment further,” they said.
The Cardinals, who last won the World Series in 2011 when Luhnow was Vice President of Scouting and Player Development, currently have the best record in baseball, with 43 wins in 64 games.
The Astros first claimed their servers had been hacked in June 2014, after confidential trade discussions at the organisation were posted online.
Yahoo Sports claim this morning that the Cardinals became implicated after the FBI traced the leak back to a house in Jupiter, Florida, where several Cardinals staff lived during their Spring Training in the city.
Suddenly, deflating footballs seems a lot less serious.
