No one likes a cheater. And no one likes to rub it in your face more than sports fans, when they find out that you are a cheater. St Louis Cardinals followers are about to find out that their team has been branded.
The baseball headline of the week concerns a case opened by the FBI that Cardinals employees hacked into the computers of the Houston Astros and lifted scouting reports, trade details and privately developed statistical data.
Computer hacking, unlike stealing catchers’ signals or doctoring a baseball with suntan lotion, is a federal offence. That makes this one a bigger deal than the usual on-field shenanigans.
Published reports suggest that the alleged spying may stem from a personal grudge against Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow, a former Cardinals executive who has successfully transformed Houston into contenders.
Whatever the reason, baseball fans no longer must grudgingly admire St Louis for their winning ways and recent World Series championships (2006, 2011).
The disdain may not reach the level NFL fans maintain for the New England Patriots, that sport’s poster child for cheating. But as the Patriots have discovered, it may not matter that these breaches of integrity have little to do with the on-field action.
What matters is that fans of other teams now have an excuse to wave off the successes and greet the Cardinals with the magic words: Winners never cheat, cheaters never win.
sports@thenational.ae
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Suggested picnic spots
Abu Dhabi
Umm Al Emarat Park
Yas Gateway Park
Delma Park
Al Bateen beach
Saadiyaat beach
The Corniche
Zayed Sports City
Dubai
Kite Beach
Zabeel Park
Al Nahda Pond Park
Mushrif Park
Safa Park
Al Mamzar Beach Park
Al Qudrah Lakes
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Torque: 450Nm at 6,100rpm
Transmission: 7-speed PDK auto or 6-speed manual
Fuel economy, combined: 13.8L/100km
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US tops drug cost charts
The study of 13 essential drugs showed costs in the United States were about 300 per cent higher than the global average, followed by Germany at 126 per cent and 122 per cent in the UAE.
Thailand, Kenya and Malaysia were rated as nations with the lowest costs, about 90 per cent cheaper.
In the case of insulin, diabetic patients in the US paid five and a half times the global average, while in the UAE the costs are about 50 per cent higher than the median price of branded and generic drugs.
Some of the costliest drugs worldwide include Lipitor for high cholesterol.
The study’s price index placed the US at an exorbitant 2,170 per cent higher for Lipitor than the average global price and the UAE at the eighth spot globally with costs 252 per cent higher.
High blood pressure medication Zestril was also more than 2,680 per cent higher in the US and the UAE price was 187 per cent higher than the global price.
