| This is an OZY Special Briefing, an extension of the Presidential Daily Brief. The Special Briefing tells you what you need to know about an important issue, individual or story that is making news. Each one serves up an interesting selection of facts, opinions, images and videos in order to catch you up and vault you ahead. WHAT TO KNOW What’s happening? As spring training gets underway for a new baseball season, the sport is consumed by a still-unfolding scandal. Four months after a former player disclosed the Houston Astros’ elaborate sign-stealing system — in which they illegally deciphered the opposing team’s pitching signals using cameras, allowing the batter to know what’s coming — the outrage is only growing. Critics are calling for the 2017 World Series champs to be stripped of their title, while MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred (pictured) has been criticized for going easy on the Astros. Why does it matter? Following the steroid crisis of the 2000s, the league leveled all sorts of bans against the offending players, albeit selectively. But in the sign-stealing scandal, the only casualties so far have been Astros GM Jeff Luhnow and manager A.J. Hinch (though the New York Mets and Boston Red Sox have also fired their Astros-linked managers). The club has been docked $5 million and lost their next two first- and second-round draft picks. The problem: Fans and players are angrier than ever, raising an important question on which the future of pro baseball may well depend: Will the players themselves be punished? | 