Anatomy of a Narrative: How Social Media Attempts To Manipulate The Public To Accept A League's Biases...

Oh.  

My.  

GOD.

I want you to take a look at a video made by a verified YouTube user regarding what, in and of it's own merit, probably deserves some degree of a deep dive:  the rise of the pitchers this year and the fact that it is increasingly believed (now up to third-party evaluators employed by Major League Baseball to verify) that the entire rise of pitching this year has been due to RAMPANT doctoring of the baseball:

Now, of it's own merit, this is definitely a deep dive some would want examined.

But there's a serious bias problem here in this video, and it's another "FUCK THE DODGERS!" moment, as it appears that Rob Manfred's "FUCK THE DODGERS!" campaign of the last 6-8-10 years is beginning to weasel it's way into commentaries about the game.

It does not take 75 seconds of a brief beginning of this video (so you don't have to listen to the whole 22 minutes unless you want to) for this verified YouTuber to make three very strong charges:

1. The cheating is so rampant among pitchers that the YouTuber is effectively certain that every no-hitter performed to this point in 2021 had doctoring of the baseball.
2. Trevor Bauer, while with Cincinnati, concocted a historic-ly effective substance to doctor the balls, and not only won the 2020 Cy Young with it...
3. ... but won that fat contract with the Dodgers, not only for his services, BUT FOR THE SUBSTANCE TO GO ALONG WITH IT.  ("... which has led some to believe that his record-setting contract he signed this off-season was made by the Dodgers, in part, to gain access to this substance." (1:05-1:14 in the video))

If that's not a direct hit piece on the LA Dodgers, I want to know what is.

And, as I said to him, he might as well be Rob Manfred, because that's trying to manipulate a narrative.

Here's the problem:  At least on a league-wide level, he may be right.  Word is getting out that "substances on the ball" are being investigated across the league -- and, wouldn't you know it, offenses are beginning to respond!!

But statements like this are trying to put a narrative out there -- Fuck The Dodgers, and we know we can't beat them without basically attempting to dismantle the entire team and foment it's break-up.

Want to say otherwsie?  Who's saying that, "Baseball Doesn't Exist", and WHY???