Questions swirl about the Rockies’ humidor

And by “questions swirl” I mean “lots of people are wanting to make an accusation about the Rockies messing with the humidor, but don’t have enough evidence to do so, so they phrase their accusations in the form of questions so as to make it seem like they’re not accusing anyone of anything":

The humidor is used to make balls less hitter-friendly in the thin air of the Mile High City but what if some non-humidor balls were in the mix with the Rockies at bat?

In July, the voice of the Giants, Jon Miller, said in a KNBR interview that he had heard from people in the game that something fishy could be happening with the baseballs, which are to be humidified and used by both teams.

“I wasn’t making accusations. I was saying there were people on the Giants and apparently other teams talking about something could be going on,” Miller said Monday . . . Two Dodgers coaches questioned a reporter in San Francisco last week about the validity of the humidor process, suggesting the Rockies could use non-humidor balls if the process isn’t monitored properly.

It doesn’t sound like it would be that hard to mess with the balls if one were inclined to do so, given that there appears to be an unmonitored, multi-step chain of custody of the baseballs involving Rockies employees who aren’t exactly critical to the organization (i.e. umpires’ assistants, etc.) and who are thus easily ordered-around and ultimately expendable. I can see, therefore, how it would be possible to screw with the humidor if the team were so inclined.

But the hallmark of all conspiracy theories is the operation of something that is possible, but for which there is no evidence of it actually occurring. Until someone squeals -- and the same non-critical employees who could be asked to mess with baseballs are the same sorts who might find it in their best interests to squeal about such a thing -- I’m going to chalk this up to superstition and frustration on the part of the Rockies’ opponents.