The Sunday, April 26, 2020

*

Baseball websites have taken a

Peter Abraham

Tim Dierkes and Sean Forman changed baseball with their ideas, creating websites that made it easier for fans, executives, players, agents, and journalists to follow and appreciate the sport.

Now, with baseball indefinitely shut down because of the coronavirus, they’re trying to survive.

“It’s been very stressful time to a business,” said Forman, who owns Baseball-Reference.com, part of the Sports Reference family of sites. “You’re trying to do right by your employees and their families. Nobody saw this coming.”

Dierkes is the founder and owner of MLBTradeRumors.com, a site that reports on the latest transactions and gossip from around the game. Walk around a major league clubhouse close to the trade deadline in July and you’ll find many of the players and most of the reporters frantically checking the site’s phone app for the latest news.

Outside of MLB.com, MLB Trade Rumors and Baseball Reference are the two most popular baseball sites on the web. In normal times, MLBTR would be getting an average of 1 million page views a day. That’s down by more than 40 percent, and advertising revenue has dropped by 50 percent.

“It’s a whammy,” said Dierkes, who has three full-time employees. “It’s devastating for the business.”

The same is generally true for Baseball Reference, which during the season generates 1.5 million page views daily. The site, which started in 2000 as a hobby for Forman, has grown into a company with 11 full- time employees.

Baseball Reference is the industry standard for looking up statistics, box scores, and the other minutia of baseball. Any time you read a story with some mention of statistics, traditional or advanced, it’s likely the writer went to Baseball Reference to look it up.

Forman also created sites for the NFL, NBA, NHL, professional soccer, NCAA , and NCAA football. That traffic has helped Sports Reference stay afloat.

“Overall we’re holding fairly steady,” he said. “Baseball traffic is down, but the NFL offseason took on new meaning with Tom Brady [leaving the Patriots]. The Michael Jordan documentary [on ESPN] was a big win for us, too.

“Anything of a historical nature that people are watching, people are also looking for box scores. We’re fortunate in that regard.”

But Forman is leaving one open position unfilled and shuttered the company’s summer intern program. The drop in Web advertising hit hard, but he’s making payroll.

“If the NFL plays in September, we’ll be fine,” he said. “If not …”

Baseball Reference is running its own computer simulation of the season to create some content. But with fantasy leagues and the sports gambling industry shut down, too, many of its customers are finding other ways to spend their time.

Dierkes believes as much as two-thirds of his traffic comes from fantasy team owners. But over the years he has spoken to many baseball insiders who appreciate having one place on the Web to go for the latest roster updates, no matter how minor.

MLB Trade Rumors, which started in 2005, also has sister sites for NBA, NFL, and NHL rumors. But baseball is what brings in the most revenue, and transactions came to a sudden halt on March 27 when rosters were frozen.

“That was a big change,” Dierkes said. “A lot of what we’re doing now is original material and reporting the news. It’s hard finding something interesting.”

In slow times during the year, Dierkes encourages his writers to be creative. Now that’s a daily mandate. Recent posts looked into the class of for next season and which players could be candidates for qualifying offers.

“This happened virtually overnight,” Dierkes said. “It’s something you couldn’t have anticipated happening. Ad rates fluctuate sometimes but they just dropped suddenly.”

Dierkes, who operates the site in suburban Chicago, successfully applied for government assistance to help make payroll.

“My accountants were really good helping with that,” he said. “But this has just been terrifying."

Another baseball site, the analytically based Fangraphs.com, also was hit hard. CEO David Appleman laid off 20 freelance writers in March and cut the pay of 10 full-time staffers.

Because these sites rely largely on advertising revenue as opposed to paid subscriptions, the lack of games is a hurdle almost impossible to overcome.

“You’re doing anything to move the needle, even a little,” Dierkes said. “Generally that’s depending on the news. April is never a big month for us, but last year, when [Craig] Kimbrel and [Dallas] Keuchel were free agents, we did really well.

“Usually it builds in May and June and we get a big spike at the trade deadline. Now I don’t know if there will be a trade deadline. We don’t know what will happen. You look ahead and wonder what the business will look like.”

One small positive is that working from home is not an issue.

Baseball Reference, which operates out of space rented from a church on the outskirts of Philadelphia, already had two employees working remotely, and the others made a relatively smooth transition.

“That part, at least, wasn’t a concern,” said Forman, a former professor of mathematics and computer science who left Saint Joseph’s University in 2006 to operate the sites. “But we need some games.”

THE CALL ON CORA? Bloom should have final say

It’s easy to suggest, as I did this past week, that the Red Sox should rehire as after the 2020 ends. He was cleared of any wrongdoing in 2018, and the assumption is that will get the team through this season but not necessarily beyond.

That the Red Sox did not extend his contract beyond this season suggests they don’t see the 63-year-old Roenicke as a long-term solution.

It was obvious during his two years on the job that Cora is temperamentally suited for Boston. That’s not a quality easy to find. He also brought out the best in , , and Eduardo Rodriguez, three players critical to the long-term prospects of the organization.

Cora unquestionably acted poorly in Houston and earned his suspension. But if the Red Sox believe he’s their best choice, holding that against him would be foolish.

Commissioner suspended Cora for a year, the same punishment he levied against Houston manager A.J. Hinch and general manager Jeff Luhnow. That strongly suggests the commissioner saw their lack of oversight being just as serious as what Cora did in setting up the trash-can scheme.

The Astros were an organization without a moral center long before Cora arrived, and it continued after he was gone.

When Cora was let go in January, Sox ownership talked about him as if he were a treasured member of their family. It was clear their hand was forced and they made the move because there was little other choice at the time.

They’ll have a choice once the season ends. But there is one potential obstacle.

Chaim Bloom has been in charge of baseball operations for six months now and has yet to make a significant hire. He deserves a chance to put his imprint on the organization, and if he feels Cora is compromised or that the Sox can do better, he should have veto power.

Bloom knew he was inheriting Cora when he took the job. But now the choice should be largely his.

A few other observations on the Red Sox:

▪ MLB’s investigations department should do some actual investigating the next time cheating is alleged instead of offering immunity to players to rat out somebody such as J.T. Watkins and make him the fall guy.

MLB’s report doesn’t categorically determine that Watkins broke any rules, only that some players believed he could have. Yet he alone was held accountable. The alternative was for MLB to acknowledge that three months of investigating didn’t amount to much.

Watkins went on the record denying he broke any rules, and that any information he gave players during games was a product of his pregame preparation.

So it comes down to this: Do you believe the word of a West Point graduate who went on the record or a small group of players who spoke anonymously knowing they could not be held accountable in any way?

If Watkins returns to the Red Sox in 2021, it should be with a healthy pay raise.

▪ The Red Sox investigation should be what finally compels MLB to move all replay monitors to a location away from the dugout. The players should not have access to the technology or the people monitoring it.

Staffers such as Watkins work for modest pay and hope to get a life-changing playoff share if the team is successful. It’s unfair to put them in a position where the players are hovering.

“I think it’s something that we as a sport ought to look at,” Bloom said. “It’s no excuse for rule violations; we’re all accountable for our behavior and we’re all responsible for following rules whatever they are.

“But I also think that structurally we ought to do everything we can to make sure these aspects of our game are beyond reproach. What exactly those remedies are, I think, is something that has to be discussed.”

The answer seems simple: Put the replay screen on the press box level, with both teams in the same area.

▪ In the career pantheon of unusual statements from , suggesting he may have caught COVID- 19 from isn’t in the top five. But Boggs still felt compelled to call back a reporter from the Tampa Bay Times to say he was joking.

“Evidently the humor was lost in the context of the article,” Boggs told Marc Topkin.

Boggs said earlier this month that an illness he had in February could have been COVID-19 following an encounter with Sale at a Red Sox function in Fort Myers, Fla.

Sale did have pneumonia and briefly wondered at one point whether he had the virus before ruling it out. But Boggs ran with it and got some blowback.

“If I offended Chris Sale or Chris Sale’s agent or Chris Sale’s fans, I was not blaming anybody,” Boggs said.

▪ Starting Monday at 8:30 p.m. with Game 1 of the against the Angels, NESN will replay the 11 games the Sox won in the 2004 postseason over a two-week period.

ETC. Saying farewell to a minor legend

Steve Dalkowski never made it to the major leagues. But he gained more fame than plenty who did before dying this past week in a nursing home of COVID-19. He was 80.

Legend has it that Dalkowski threw harder than anybody but was never quite sure where the ball was going. The lefthander from New Britain, Conn., struck out 262 in 170 for Class C Stockton in 1960 and walked 262.

Dalkowski spent nine seasons in the minors, eight with the Orioles. Earl Weaver was among those who said Dalkowski threw faster than , well over 100 miles per hour. The Orioles were once on the verge of trying Dalkowski as a reliever, but it never happened.

I first heard about Dalkowski 33 years ago from then-UConn Andy Baylock, who caught Dalkowski in high school. Over the years, old scouts would testify that Dalkowski threw 105-110. But portable radar guns weren’t around then to prove it.

The Nuke LaLoosh character in “Bull Durham” was patterned after Dalkowski — that’s how famous he was.

But the story had a sad end. Dalkowski was a heavy drinker who was homeless for a time and had numerous health issues. The Hartford Courant reported that he spent his final 26 years at the nursing home with occasional trips to visit family or attend nearby minor league games.

Extra bases The Hall of Fame is expected to decide in the next two weeks whether its induction ceremony for and will be held July 26. According to New York state statistics, there are only 47 cases of coronavirus in Otsego County, and the idea of thousands of fans coming to Cooperstown understandably concerns the residents. One obvious solution would be to wait until next year. That would be the safest route medically and also protect the Hall against the very real possibility that no candidates emerge from the BBWAA voting for the 2021 class. , a controversial candidate, climbed to 70 percent of the votes last season, but no other holdover on the ballot appears close. , Tim Hudson, and will be the most notable newcomers on the ballot, and none profile as a Hall of Famer … The Twins ordered thousands of “Homer Hankies” for the playoffs last season and had only one game. They took the extras out of storage so they could be remade into approximately 50,000 cotton facemasks and donated to health-care workers, grocery stores, and nonprofit organizations … Detroit has been a hot spot for COVID-19, devastating a city that has made significant strides in recent years. So kudos to Tigers president Christopher Ilitch for announcing the team had no plans to lay off or furlough any employees. “We are a family company with strong values around our employees, our fans, and our community,” said Ilitch, who also has committed $1 million to part-time employees at Comerica Park and Little Caesars Arena in addition to the $1 million all MLB owners contributed to part-time employees … Former GM Jerry Krause was portrayed as the villain in two parts of the Michael Jordan documentary “The Last Dance” when it debuted on ESPN this past week. “Crumbs” also had a long career in baseball, scouting for several teams in the 1970s and early ’80s before convincing Bulls and White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf to make him GM. After he left the NBA in 2003, Krause worked for the Yankees, Mets, White Sox, and Diamondbacks as a scout until his death in 2017. Krause routinely rejected interview requests during his time with the Yankees and Mets after his tumultuous NBA career … Happy 38th birthday to Alejandro Machado, who appeared in only 10 games for the Red Sox in 2005 but ended up on the postseason roster. The Sox traded for Machado during that season and left him in A until Sept. 2. He had only six plate appearances but stayed on the roster for the Division Series against the White Sox as a pinch runner. He appeared in Game 3, running for John Olerud with two outs in the eighth with the Red Sox down by a run. But Machado stayed put as struck out. The White Sox finished off the game to sweep the series, and Machado never played in the majors again.

* Bostonsportsjournal.com

MLB Notebook: Winners and Losers from 2018 sign-stealing; a look at best trades in Red Sox history

Sean McAdam

It took better than three months for to conclude its investigation into the Red Sox’ sign-stealing from 2018.

It took only minutes before the second-guessing of the investigation began. If nothing else, it seems … odd that a low-profile employee was the only one in the organization who engaged in any chicanery and more than a little convenient that he was the only one disciplined for his role in the matter.

Nevertheless, let’s take a look at some of the winners and losers of this mess:

WINNERS

Alex Cora: Yes, he got suspended for the 2020 season, but it wasn’t long ago that such a punishment would have looked like a best-case scenario for Cora. When A.J. Hinch and Jeff Luhnow each got a year, it seemed a fait accompli Cora was going to get more. Instead, commissioner Rob Manfred essentially exonerated Cora for the scandal in 2018, with a light rap on the wrist for not doing a better job in telling players about the sign-stealing rules. Had Cora gotten more than a year’s worth, his reputation would have been dealt a severe blow. But now, while his culpability with the Astros in 2017 is clear, he avoids the two- time offender tag and could be in position to be the most sought-after free-agent manager in the game this winter. And who knows? It’s possible that Cora doesn’t miss a game in the dugout due to the shutdown.

Dave Dombrowski: The former Red Sox president of baseball operations maintained from the outset he was unaware of what was going on in the dugout or video room, and MLB’s report effectively confirmed that. (I’ve often wondered if ignorance of the goings-on in your own organization is a smart defense plea, but that’s for another day). Dombrowski’s name is barely mentioned in the report, and when it does come up, it’s done in a positive context: “Dombrowski and (current GM Brian) O’Halloran were emphatic that MLB’s rule be followed….” Dombrowski is eager to run a team again, and while there are doubts in the industry that, at 63, he’ll be given that opportunity, at least he wasn’t disqualified by a suspension or his reputation sullied by any allegations. In that regard, Dombrowski should consider himself lucky, since he was in charge of the Red Sox when two cheating scandals broke — this one and the 2016 Apple Watch mess.

LOSERS

Ron Roenicke: On one hand, Roenicke finally got to shed the “interim” tag from his title, a vow the Sox kept when they appointed him manager — without any qualifiers — within hours of the report being issued. But beyond the change in job title and finally having the cloud lifted from his team, there’s a more sobering future. First, there’s hardly a guarantee that any baseball will be played in 2020. Worse, the Red Sox revealed that Roenicke’s managerial contract is actually merely his original coach’s contract — with a healthy raise, presumably — and this his deal expires at the conclusion of the 2020 season. That means, the Red Sox removed the “interim” and unofficially added “lame duck” to his title. If there is a 2020 season, the supposition will be that Roenicke is only keeping the seat warm for Alex Cora 2.0. And even if Cora decides he might not want to return, and/or the front office determines that bringing him back serves as poor optics, Roenicke’s future will be up for constant debate. And if he’s given a chance to manage at all, it will likely be a shortened season with a roster stripped of his best player () and best starting (Chris Sale). That’s unfortunate, since Roenicke deserved a better fate.

Chaim Bloom: Bloom’s luck keeps going from bad to worse. First, he had to undertake a managerial search that he never expected, under less than optimum conditions. Then, he lost Sale for this year and part of next. And now, as he tries to rebuild a minor league system that his predecessor fracked for more immediate returns, he’s lost his second-round pick. That’s nowhere near as steep a penalty as the one suffered by the Astros (first- and second-round picks for two years), but it’s not insignificant either. As some have noted, the Red Sox have drafted , , Alex Wilson and in the second round. For a team intent on rebuilding its farm system, losing a second-round pick is big — and one more roadblock Bloom couldn’t have expected when he took the job last fall. ______

Rosters aren’t officially frozen — though they might as well be — but there are no trades (or even trade rumors) in our immediate future.

The annual July 31 deadline will come and go this year….without players coming and going.

So this could be a good time to relive some of the best trades in Red Sox history. I’ve kept them relatively modern (post-expansion era), with an exception or two.

Note: Some of the organization’s most important figures (including , , , and others were either purchased or signed as free agents) and thus, don’t qualify for inclusion on this list.

1. Red Sox obtain Pedro Martinez from Montreal for and T0ny Armas in 1997.

We can debate other deals, but this to me is inarguable for the No. 1 spot on the list. The Sox acquired one of the best pitchers in baseball history for two young pitchers, neither of whom delivered much for the Expos. Martinez? Oh, he only won three-quarters of his decisions, posted a 2.52 ERA in an era when offensive numbers were bloated by PEDs, won two Awards and finished second two other times. And made every single start of his career — and a certain relief appearance in Cleveland — an event.

2. Red Sox obtain and Jason Varitek from Seattle for Heathcliff Slocumb in 1997.

That made both of these deals in the span of five months is reason alone for him to be elected to the Red Sox Hall of Fame — and let’s forget for a moment that he mistakenly believed Lowe was left- handed when the deal was made.

Lowe and Varitek were key components of a team that made four trips to the postseason in the span of seven times, including the championship. Lowe won 70 games and saved another 85 while Varitek became the second-best Red Sox in modern franchise history.

Slocumb? He was 2-9 with a 4.97 ERA in a season and a half with the Mariners.

3. Red Sox obtain and in a multi-player deal with several teams, giving up and .

On the face of it, this doesn’t look like much. After all, Garciaparra looked to be a Hall of Fame talent both Cabrera and Mientkiewicz spent only a third of a season in Boston. But what a few months it was.

Garciaparra was limited by injuries at the time and was never the same after leaving Boston. Cabrera was key at short and Mientkiewicz supplied stellar defense at first base. It’s not hyperbole to suggest that the Sox don’t win the 2004 World Series without these two.

And frankly, some of this was addition by subtraction. Garciaparra had become a moody, negative clubhouse presence, miffed over the Sox pulling a contract extension offer from earlier in the year.

(Note: Despite some revisionist history, was not part of this same deal. He came in a separate one-on-one swap with the Dodgers and played a smaller role during the rest of the season. But a certain in October warrants his transaction as an “honorable mention” at least).

4. Red Sox obtain Curt Schilling from Arizona for , Mike Goss, and .

This was — then and now — incredibly one-sided. Schilling was one of the best starters in the game and still had a couple of great seasons remaining. He was part of two World Series teams (2004, 2007) and, per usual, saved his best for the postseason.

This trade also helps make up for one which could earn a spot on the Worst Red Sox trades ever, when the Sox shipped a much younger Schilling and Brady Anderson for Mike Boddicker.

5. Red Sox obtain , and from in 20o5 for Hanley Ramirez, Anibal Sanchez, Harvey Garcia and Jesus Delgado.

This might rank higher except for the fact that the Sox ended up moving two players who went on to have very good careers — Hanley was a terrific player for the Marlins and Sanchez, incredibly, is still pitching in the big leagues 15 years later, having fashioned a nice career for himself.

That said, the Sox definitely don’t win in 2007 (and come close again in 2008 and reach the postseason in 2009 and….) without Lowell and Beckett. Lowell won the MVP and Beckett was the best in the game, from April through October, that season.

File this under: helped both teams. But given that the Sox won a World Series and very nearly won a pennant the year after, it certainly helped them more.

6. Red Sox obtain (and ) in 1978 from the Indians in exchange , Bo Diaz, and .

In the final week of spring training, the Sox pulled off a one-sided four-for-one swap which gave them a young starter who would win 37 games over his first two seasons in Boston.

Meanwhile, Wise had a strong 1979, but was nearing the end and none of other three players going to Cleveland offer much in the way of value.

7. Red Sox obtain and from the Mariners in 1986 in exchange for Rey Quinones, , , and John Christensen.

Think of this as the earlier equivalent of the 2004 Nomar deal: an in-season deal that settled the middle of the infielder, while also adding a dynamic outfielder in Henderson, who would prove to be a clutch presence — to say the least — later that fall.

8. Red Sox obtain from the Cubs in 1987 for Al Nipper and .

Smith solved the Red Sox’ issues for a couple of seasons, helping them win the 1988 AL East title, while Nipper and Schilardi made negligible contributions.

As an added bonus, when Smith was nearly finished as a , the Sox used him to land Tom Brunansky in 1990.

9. Red Sox obtain from the Yankees in 1986 for Mike Easler.

In a rare deal between the Sox and Yanks, this looked like a rather innocuous deal, with the Sox giving up a lefty DH for a righthanded one. It proved to be far more. Baylor supplied a power bat, and equally as important, a veteran, winning presence in the clubhhouse.

No doubt, his part in Red Sox history would have loomed far larger were it not for a certain blown lead in of that October’s World Series.

10. Red Sox obtain , and from Indians in 1969 for Ken Harrelson, and .

At the time, this seemed horribly lopsided against the Red Sox. Harrelson was coming off his magical 1968 season (..518 slugging, 35 homers) and Ellsworth had won 16 games while posting a 3.03 ERA.

But Sox GM Dick O’Connell seldom made bad deals and must have known something. Harrelson had a decent 1969 season, but after that was essentially done and the same was true for Ellsworth. Meanwhile, Siebert would become the anchor of the Sox rotation, going 57-41 with a 3.46 ERA, led by a 1970 season in which he posted a 5.2 WAR.

* The

How MLB can put stop to Red Sox, Astros-like video scandals

Joel Sherman

Think of the major league players in a clubhouse like the cool kids in high school. The world revolves around them. Their approval, friendship and respect are collateral in that universe.

I have seen owners gravitate toward star clusters in clubhouses, GMs dumb down their language, curse and spit to try to be one of the guys, and managers accept the unacceptable to avoid unleashing an us versus him with his own players.

Now, say you have a title like video-replay system operator or advance-scouting assistant. You travel with the club. You are in their world. But not. You want to climb the ladder. Stop having the word assistant tied to your title. The surest way to make powerful allies is to get on players’ good side is by making them better and keeping their secrets.

Who in that position is going to tell a player who wants to know what pitch is coming — even through illegally retrieved information — that it is against the rules? Especially in 2017 and ’18, when folks — especially players — could still play dumb about what the rules were. Sure, you could go to the front office and tell them about the pressure. But 1) most front offices will not care, and 2) you will, most importantly, violate that part about keeping the players’ secrets, and at that point you are as dead in the clubhouse as the nerd who tries to call out the quarterback in high school.

I do not know J.T. Watkins. I have no idea, when he was serving as the Red Sox’s video-replay system operator and advanced-scouting assistant, what kind of stresses players were putting on him — though he indicated there was some in a report released Wednesday by the Commissioner’s Office. That report detailed Boston’s illegal sign-stealing in 2018. The only person punished for that specific breach was Watkins. He was suspended this year without pay and not allowed to return to any video-monitoring role in 2021.

This played like investigating the Watergate break-in and punishing just the burglars.

At this point, baseball fans and opposing teams are not going to get fully what they want out of either the Astros or Red Sox investigations and penalties. We do not have full blow-by-blow of who did what and when and to what extent. We do not have punishment of all those who should have been punished for flaunting the rules and further decaying faith in the game.

We can continue to lob criticism at MLB’s investigations and at those who eluded scrutiny because for the grace of the baseball gods no whistleblower came out against their team. But the worse transgression now would be not learning from this and not implementing safeguards to prevent the next time. Some thoughts:

Put the replay decision in the hands of the manager. Period. Understand the slippery slope here. In 2014, MLB expanded replay and each team set up a person to review off of multiple monitors. It didn’t take long to recognize at least one monitor was always trained on the catcher and, thus, his signs.

As dirty as the Astros’ “Codebreaker’ sounds, it was not illegal in 2017-18 or now. Teams can do any pregame or postgame work decoding sequences, and the best clubs — and the 2018 Red Sox, for example, were known as terrific at this — could do the study to know before a game the two or three sequences each pitcher uses and arm runners at second with the information. This is why you see teams use cards now so each pitcher has more sequence variety.

The problem is when the replay room was providing players information in real time — most egregious with the Astros doing it not just with a runner on second, but at all times. Think of that low-status replay official again trying to tell players they can’t have that info, especially when the players probably feel other teams are violating the rules. This was not what replay was intended for, so we should go back to what it was: eliminating the egregious call.

So close the replay rooms. Give each manager two challenges, and he must decide within five seconds after a play whether he wants to challenge by throwing, say, a red flag. This will stop the ticky-tack third inning stoppage in which a base stealer’s toe came a millimeter off the base. Managers will only use the precious challenges when most valuable. The manager has to decide when to pinch hit or use a reliever, he now will have to decide this.

Fringe benefit: have you watched old games without replay challenges during this pandemic? The pace is much better — particularly in the NBA — and one reason is no constant stoppage for replay decisions. Let’s limit the replay stoppages until they are vital, and let’s get the slippery-slope video-monitor system in-game shut down.

Players must be punished from now on. I get it. This time around the Commissioner’s Office was not getting cooperation from players without immunity. But let’s keep in mind that the players — the high school cool kids — were the primary offenders and beneficiaries of the cheating, and the dynamic is wrong that they go without penalty.

Many players complained about the cheating and wanted stiffer penalties. Good. Tell your union that no one can play dumb in the future about the rules and that breaking this rule will come with real games lost/pay loss. The Players Association and MLB should have common ground here, so that next time someone like Watkins is not the only one dealing with 15 minutes of infamy.

Look, there are 30 hyper-competitive teams built these days to find the loopholes and the exploitable elements in any rule regardless of whether it is good for the game or not. MLB has put front offices on alert with more stringent language in the rules, and with suspensions for GMs and managers and low-level functionaries such as Watkins. If you want a better chance of cleaning this up, players must face real penalties as well.