Dodgers baseball should be the topic on a Dodgers-based blog site, but Pedro Martinez‘s comments on January 21 regarding Mike Fiers blowing the whistle on the Houston Astros cannot go without mention. After all, if Jessica Mendoza is open to criticism, then the Hall of Fame right-hander deserves the same scrutiny.

Martinez’s comments are from an entirely different perspective than Mendoza’s. He was in Major League Baseball clubhouses for parts of 18-years, teammates with his band of brothers for approximately 2,300 regular-season games. When he speaks, he speaks with knowledge, experience, and authority.

Martinez calling out Mike Fiers for whistleblowing on his former teammates, calling him a “bad teammate” because he broke the unwritten rule that whatever happens in the clubhouse stays in the clubhouse carries significantly more weight than Mendoza or any other baseball journalist or analyst who has never played major league baseball. But, with all due respect for Martinez’s baseball accomplishments, his characterization of Fiers as someone without integrity or guts because he did not object to the cheating while a member of the Astros is naive and old-school nonsense.

According to Martinez, while Fiers was an Astros player he should have had the guts/integrity to either confront his cheating Astors teammates or gone to the general manager (who was complicit in the cheating) or complained to directly to MLB – which would have also been considered whistleblowing. One can only imagine what would have happened to Fiers if he had taken any of those actions.

Martinez said: “…players should not be the one dropping whistle-blower.” If not the players, then who is responsible for calling out the liars and cheaters? Manager AJ Hinch, who did not have the guts to even tell his players to stop cheating? Coach Alex Cora, who was one of the ring-leaders? General manager Jeff Luhnow, who was complicit in the scheme and attempted coverup? The technicians who arranged for the direct feed to the monitor in the dugout? The owner and chairman Jim Crane, who has realized hundreds of millions of dollars in increased team value for winning the 2917 World Series? Inquiring minds would like to know, Mr. Martinez. Who exactly should have blown the whistle on the cheating organization?

Instead of branding Fiers as a bad teammate, a turncoat or traitor, perhaps a Hall of Fame pitcher should be commending him for helping to clean up the game for the fans who have a right to expect their teams to have a level playing field from which to compete for the ultimate prize. Instead of putting Fiers in the position of having to watch his back in his own clubhouse, why not call out Alex Cora and Carlos Beltran for being liars and cheaters who should be permanently banned from MLB. Instead of calling out journeyman pitcher Mike Fiers for blowing the whistle, why not call out Astros star players Verlander, Altuve, Bregman, Correa, and Springer for not having the guts to stand up in the clubhouse to call out their teammates for cheating?

Inquiring minds would like to know the answers, Pedro.

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