By Chris Brown – STL Baseball Today
The St. Louis Cardinals organization has faced many challenges on the field in 2015, with injuries to Adam Wainwright, Matt Adams, Jordan Walden, Lance Lynn, Matt Holliday, etc. But it appears that it will be an off-the-field challenge that will prove to be the biggest hurdle for the organization to overcome – something that could jeopardize the organization’s long-standing reputation as the model franchise in Major League Baseball.
Investigators from the F.B.I. and Justice Department have obtained evidence that Cardinals front office personnel hacked into the Houston Astros’ baseball operations database, according to a report released Tuesday morning by the New York Times. Confirmed by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the investigation originates from a breach in the Astros’ well-known internal communication and evaluation system known as “Ground Control” roughly one year ago. The database houses information on trade discussions as well as statistics, scouting reports, and medical information on players, according to the Times and Post-Dispatch.
An official familiar with the investigation told Jeff Passan of Yahoo! Sports that the F.B.I. traced the breach to a house in Jupiter, Florida, where the Cardinals hold spring training. That official also told Passan that many team employees used the house, potentially making it more difficult to pinpoint the alleged perpetrators.
A report from Evan Drellich of the Houston Chronicle indicates that the F.B.I. has looked in to several other addresses from which the illegal access could have occurred aside from the house in Jupiter, including one in a state that doesn’t host a major-league team. A source also familiar with the case told the Chronicle that investigators are now focused on just “four to five” people within the organization. Additionally, Joe Strauss of the Post-Dispatch reports that the hacking involved “at least two low-level employees.” The Chronicle report, from Evan Drellich and David Barron, says that the F.B.I. investigation is in its final stages.
Aside from the well-known about breach from last summer, the Chronicle also reports there was unauthorized access of the system in March of last year. No further information has surfaced about that particular instance so far.
Although the individuals at the focus of the investigation are not known, Derrick Goold of the Post-Dispatch reports that many members of the front office staff have hired attorneys as a result. Goold also reports that the F.B.I. visited Busch Stadium back in February and took computers as part of their investigation.
As Passan and many other reporters have noted, the real key in this situation will be how high up in the organization knowledge of the attack(s) reaches. From Passan’s report:
If this was simply the manifestation of rogue Cardinals analysts, $50,000-a-year guys rummaging through another team’s database for giggles, it’s more a black eye for the Cardinals than a gut shot. Of course, that presupposes that the low-level staffers not only stole the information from the Astros but didn’t reveal the hack to anybody else in the organization. Which is possible, yes, if not altogether likely.
The nightmare for the Cardinals would be if knowledge of the information reached higher levels. The second anybody in any position of power knew of the breach and did not report it to Major League Baseball or authorities, he or she not only would be helping cover up a crime but implicitly endorsing it by continuing to employ those under investigation, which the Cardinals still do.
In considering the possible punishments which could be handed down, there are two places to look. While Major League Baseball’s constitution allows Commissioner Rob Manfred the ability to dish out punishment (which could potentially include fines or the loss of draft picks in the future), the bigger issue will be the charges dropped by the federal government after the F.B.I. and Justice Department investigation concludes. In an in-depth article published Wednesday, Brian Stull of St. Louis Baseball Weekly examined the possible punishments that could be handed down by the federal government, with help from Paul D’Agrosa, a lead select attorney for Federal District Court of Wolff and D’Agrosa in St. Louis.
From Stull’s article:
“You have to speculate a little bit here about what they’re investigating, but it would seem to come under what they commonly refer to as the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act,” said D’Agrosa…
The maximum penalty is five years per violation,” said D’Agrosa. “There are misdemeanors that could also apply, which have a maximum penalty of a year.
“I think there’s a big question here–how was Houston damaged? How was the ball club damaged, how were people’s reputations damaged? And this could be a very expensive proposition for anybody accused of these crimes or accessing the computer.”
Of course, a major question which will likely not be answered for some time is why – Why would Cardinals employees illegally hack into Houston’s database? According to the original Times report, investigators believe the hack was a malicious attempt “by vengeful front office employees for the Cardinals hoping to wreak havoc on the work of Jeff Luhnow, the Astros’ general manager,” who was a very successful Cardinals executive and member of the scouting department from 2003 to 2011, when he left to become GM of the Astros.
Goold provides more background on Luhnow and his history with the redbirds:
The Cardinals hired Luhnow in 2003 and empowered him to oversee the organization and expansion of the team’s analytics department. At the time, Moneyball, named for the book about the Oakland Athletics’ use of statistics to identify market inefficiencies when acquiring talent, was the rage, sweeping through baseball. Luhnow’s background in economics and technology provided him a nontraditional approach to baseball, but he gradually increased his sphere of influence. Starting in 2005, Luhnow oversaw the Cardinals’ scouting and amateur draft, and the team experienced an influx of prospects that would nourish this run of postseason appearances and titles.
Growing friction between Luhnow and then-general manager Walt Jocketty was cited as one of the reasons for Jocketty’s dismissal after the 2007 season…
Mozeliak replaced Jocketty in October 2007, unified the front office, and offered a strong recommendation for Luhnow when the Astros came calling about their general manager opening. Mozeliak and the organization he has shaped has been described by peers as “the model.”
When Luhnow arrived in Houston, he created the aforementioned internal database Ground Control, based off of the database he used in St. Louis, known as Redbird. According to the Times article, investigators believe that the Cardinals officials responsible used a list of passwords previously used by Luhnow and employees who followed him to Houston to gain access to the Astros’ network.
Goold also noted two situations concerning Luhnow in the recent past that may have upset many Cardinals employees. One concerns a March 2014 Houston Chronicle Article, which detailed “Ground Control” and its workings. According to Goold, the similarities between that system and the Cardinals’ own database “where not lost on the Cardinals, team officials said at the time.” Many team officials were also upset with the credit that they believe Luhnow received for the Cardinals’ recent success since Luhnow left town.
On Wednesday, Cardinals Chairman and CEO Bill DeWitt Jr and General Manager John Mozeliak released the following statement regarding the investigation:
ST. LOUIS – The St. Louis Cardinals Chairman and CEO William O. DeWitt Jr., and Cardinals Sr. VP & General Manager John Mozeliak this morning shared their thoughts regarding Tuesday’s news of a federal investigation of the club related to a possible security breach of the Houston Astros’ database.
“These are serious allegations that don’t reflect who we are as an organization,” DeWitt said. “We are committed to getting to the bottom of this matter as soon as possible, and if anyone within our organization is determined to be involved in anything inappropriate, they will be held accountable.”
DeWitt said that several months ago, after the team was made aware of the allegations, he and Cardinals General Manager John Mozeliak engaged Jim Martin and the law firm of Dowd Bennett to assist the team in providing requested information to the federal government and to conduct an internal inquiry to attempt to identify any employee that may have engaged in the alleged conduct.
“The alleged conduct has no place in our game,” Mozeliak said. “We hold ourselves to the highest standards in every facet of our organization. It has been that way forever and is certainly true today. We are committed to finding out what happened. To the extent we can substantiate that these allegations have merit, we will take appropriate action against anyone involved.”
“The internal inquiry is not yet complete,” said Martin. “In the meantime, we wish to respect the process and avoid saying anything which would interfere with the government’s investigation.”
This press release was the first we’d heard from Mozeliak since the news broke, but he did speak with Bob Nightengale of USA Today Sports extensively on the issue as well. The Cards GM told Nightengale that he knew what was coming once the news broke, and that it’s an upsetting situation to be in.
“It’s frustrating,” Mozeliak told Nightengale, “and to some degree, a level of embarrassment. Dealing with this is not easy.”
“We always have taken a lot of pride to do things right.”
Mozeliak told Nightengale that the team wants to get to the bottom of the situation, adding that they’re in the same position as the government as far as finding out what happened and are cooperating with them to help get those answers.
The GM also stated, “Unequivocally, I knew nothing about this… I don’t know the outcome of this, or where it’s going to go, but our hope is that when everything comes to light, people will realize that it wasn’t something that was organizational-wide. It shouldn’t be something that takes away from any of the success this organization has had.”
For what it’s worth, Cardinals team lawyer Jim Martin of the law firm Dowd Bennett told the Post-Dispatch on Wednesday, “I am 100 percent confident that these concerns do not touch upper management and specifically John Mozeliak and Bill DeWitt.”
“We don’t want the brand of the St. Louis Cardinals tarnished through something like this,” Mozeliak told the Post-Dispatch on Wednesday. “Bill and I are deeply concerned about this and we hope to have resolution sooner rather than later.”
In his eight seasons as the team’s GM, Mozeliak has seen the Cardinals make four playoff appearances, win two National League pennants, and one World Series title. He told Nightengale he believes the findings won’t do anything to smear the club’s on-field achievements. “My hope is that it doesn’t take away anything from our past accomplishments,” Mozeliak said, “or even the future accomplishments.”
Despite the fact that they’ve been aware of the investigation for months now, the team was hoping the ordeal would stay out of the media.
“I was surprised it came out. Not that I would not want it to come out, but the way it did, and the manner it did, did catch us off guard, Mozeliak told Nightengale. “I just hope it’s something that’s doesn’t linger for us. This organization has stood for a lot of positive things over the last couple of decades. We do try to do things right, and when something like this happens, you want to try to minimize the effects of this.”
Feature image used under Creative Commons from Ron Cogswell. No changes made. Image License.
