A years-old letter sent by Major League Baseball to the New York Yankees and obtained by ESPN on Tuesday details illicit use of technology that was relatively benign within the context of the sign-stealing scandals that occurred around the game at the same time.
Earlier this month, the U.S. Second Court of Appeals denied the Yankees' request to keep the letter -- from MLB commissioner Rob Manfred to Yankees general manager Brian Cashman -- under seal.
The letter was first published by SNY on Tuesday.
That the Yankees fought to keep the letter under court-ordered seal in recent years raised eyebrows and fed conspiracy theories about what's in the letter -- to the degree that some baseball officials have been befuddled by the team's handling of the issue, believing it would have been better to simply release the letter and move on.