All the years that the San Francisco Giants ran out Barry Bonds and his steroids for profit, (then) MLB Commission Bud Selig never suspended Bonds—despite deep evidence and statistical facts backing up his steroid use. But later, for whatever reason, Selig did suspend New York Yankees star Álex Rodríguez. Why the different treatments? Namely, because suspending A-Rod wouldn’t hurt the Yankees’ finances.

And suspending Bonds would have destroyed the Giants financially, after Selig had done so much to hand the Bay Area baseball market to the S.F. franchise. Simple as that. So the recent revelation from current MLB Commission Rob Manfred that giving cheating Houston Astros players immunity was “not my best decision” doesn’t fucking surprise anyone. That would have leveled the Houston franchise irreparably.

And this is all about money. Disgusting and vile is what we call it, though. We’re not really sure why anyone takes MLB seriously, anymore, in truth. The rich teams win (almost all the time); the winning teams cheat (more often than not). Again, this is why Selig enabled The House That Steroids Built in San Francisco while crippling the Oakland Athletics at the same time. Money talks; nothing else—not even morality—matters.

While Oakland now becomes the first city ever to lose an MLB, NBA, NFL, and NHL team, cities like Boston, Houston, and San Francisco are allowed to thrive while cheating. Even the biggest name recently suspended by MLB for PED use, Fernando Tatis, Jr., didn’t cost the San Diego Padres any money. In fact, the team’s attendance improved 7,000 fans per game after his 2022 suspension. You think MLB didn’t count on that?

MLB has been giving the nods and winks for decades now that cheating is okay for specific teams in specific cities where there is money to be made via success at any cost—whereas teams that will always profit no matter what (like the Chicago Cubs, the Los Angeles Dodgers, and the Yankees) don’t get hurt by anything that comes their respective ways, really. This also says a lot about the fans in these cheating cities, of course.

Boston (1981-2004), Houston (1962-2017), and San Francisco (1954-2010) all went decades without winning a title. But once given the covert green light to cheat, they all suddenly became financial powerhouses—and World Series champions, multiple times each. We do not think this is a coincidence, and Manfred’s lament today sounds pathetic and quite insincere as he continues to lie through his teeth about the Las Vegas A’s.