Dusty Baker is talking from Spring Training, and he tells Brian McTaggart who covers the sign-stealing Houston Astros that he’s concerned about retaliation against his players in 2020.

First, have a look at the full segment to see what Dusty has to say.

Dusty Baker is concerned about “premeditated retaliation” against the Astros. He wants league to step in. pic.twitter.com/GSFaHJhX9d — Brian McTaggart (@brianmctaggart) February 15, 2020

Baker acts as though the game could set itself back if pitchers throw at the Astros. Still, he’s ignoring that the Astros themselves set the sport back oh, all the way to the Black Sox Scandal and Shoeless Joe with this stuff.

“Hopefully the league will step in and provide a stop to this seemingly pre-meditated retaliation that I am hearing about. In most instances in life, you get kind of reprimanded when you have pre-meditated anything. So I’m just hoping that the league puts a stop to this before somebody gets hurt. We put in a lot of time and effort to get to this point.”

And I’ll stop there.

Whether Baker likes it or not, retaliation is probably coming. Understand that the Astros broke some unwritten rules and the code that has existed for a long time. We have heard about careers lost, and legacies changed because of what they knowingly did.

I can only imagine that there are ties and bonds in the game – say players who have promised someone whose career has ended – that will likely be honored. It’s going to be must watch television, and I know that violence is never the answer.

But this is an unprecedented case in the game. I’m not sure a book of how to really deal with it really exists. And what’s going to happen, will happen. They Astros are going to pay a karmic debt for all this, for the rest of their careers. Bean balls or not, you don’t just walk out of something like this.

And that folks, is why you don’t cheat.