It's About Time

As A Rising Cardinals Analyst, Chris Correa Didnt Believe He Was Committing A Crime When He Hacked Into The Astros Database. Then He Went To Prison, Where, As He Explains In An Si Exclusive, He Changed His Views On His Actions And The Criminal Justice System

- Ben Reiter

AS THE 2017 spring season wore on, it became increasingly difficult to score against one of the four clubs in the softball league at the federal prison camp in Cumberland, Md. The Dogs played the standard 10 fielders, but it seemed as if they had twice as many. Right handed sluggers found the blasts that used to clear the outfielders’heads and the hard line drives that once sliced into gaps were gobbled up by the Dogs’ strange defensive alignment, a triangular flytrap of three left fielders: two of them deep and another shallow, behind the shortstop. The slap-and-dashers who tried to poke the ball the other way couldn’t find any holes either. Against them, the Dogs stationed three infielders between first and second base. After each at bat, frustrated opponents noticed,the Dogs’ coach scribbled note son his lineup card.

The Dogs went undefeated, consistently thrashing even the powerful All-Blacks. Something to put on my résumé, the Dogs’ coach thought to himself, mordantly. FPC Cumberland championship softball coach. His CV had once been impeccable. He had been Chris Correa, the former doctoral student who had steadily ascended through the front office of the Cardinals to become their scouting director, in charge of their amateur draft. No longer. Now he was Christopher J. Correa, federal inmate 04550-479.

Correa, 38, spent much of his time out on Cumberland’s softball field even when there were no games. He walked laps around its perimeter for one to two and a half hours each day, covering four to 10 miles. He began to shrink inside his prison-issued dark green uniform,losing 35 pounds off his5'11" frame, and his wedding ring dangled from his slimmed finger.

As he walked, he listened to a transistor radio. The NPR affiliates served mostly as background for his thoughts, which always cycled back to one simple question.

Why am I here?