Big Ten Commissioner Tony Petitti has “proved valuable” once again as he “finds himself in the middle of a sign-stealing scandal,” according to Diamond & Higgins of the WALL STREET JOURNAL. Petitti was MLB’s Deputy commissioner in late 2019, when he had a "front row seat" to what had been "the biggest sign-stealing scandal in American sports history" with the Astros. When MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred began investigating the Astros’ now "infamous trash-can banging scheme," Petitti saw up close how Manfred’s probe unfolded, how "he decided to impose discipline" and how "the public ultimately reacted afterward." Diamond & Higgins added he is one of the few people who “fully understand how everything played out.” It also means he is “fully aware that when Manfred eventually finishes his tenure as baseball’s commissioner, the Astros will be a critical part of his legacy” (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 11/16).
QUICK TRIGGER: In D.C., Barry Svrluga wrote even now that it is resolved, the move to suspend Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh was "hasty,” so much so that it felt as if Petitti “caved to pressure” from coaches and administrators at his conference’s other schools, many of whom “have a personal and professional distaste” for Harbaugh. This situation was Petitti’s first major public challenge as commissioner of the Big Ten. Svrluga wrote this "isn’t a plea for conferences or schools to make traditional hires of career athletic department wonks,” but “hiring businesspeople to conduct transactions has a fallout for the players who produce the product and the coaches who provide the year-to-year stability to stage it." Svrluga: "The commissioners’ duties are performed in closed-door board rooms, where all that matters is the result: a television contract and the ‘how manys’ in years and ‘how much’ in cash it yields” (WASHINGTON POST, 11/16).
