Typically, sports resemble nothing of real life. Human beings get paid millions upon millions of dollars to play a competition that we all do for fun in our backyards; they just do it a little better than us. In the bubble of professional sports, athletes live in giant houses, drive cars we will never touch, and receive fame of massive levels. And when athletes commit crimes, what would land the regular human in jail for 10-15 years, the athlete gets a slap on the wrist.
In 2013, Christopher Correa, former scouting director for the St. Louis Cardinals hacked into the Houston Astros database. The purpose of his action was to find valuable data on what the Astros were doing on a day-to-day basis, including their draft prospects, information on players, trades, and valuable scouting information. The breach was reported in 2014 by the Houston Astros and Correa lost his job and had to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages.
From there, we would expect the story to end and the executive to ride off into the sunset with his wallet a little lighter. However, Correa would not be so lucky. A federal judge issued the former director to spend the next four years in prison. For those of us who get frustrated that athletes and sporting executives get away with whatever they like, this is a nice win for justice. Even in the world of games which mean nothing in the game of life, Correa will be feeling the all-too-real walls of prison around him for the near future.
Thanks to ESPN for details on story.