The jokes came rolling in on Tuesday afternoon as the news spread that the F.B.I. and the Justice Department were investigating the St. Louis Cardinals, accusing them of breaking into the Houston Astros’ proprietary database network.
Photographs surfaced of Bill Belichick visiting the Cardinals — how perfect! Some folks posted images on Twitter of an unfortunately named former Cardinal, Luther Hackman — a possible person of interest? Brandon McCarthy, the injured Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher, posted on Twitter that the Astros could retaliate by following the game’s macho code — send an executive to the Cardinals’ front office, he wrote, “and hit their best front-office guy with a fastball.