The F.B.I. and Justice Department prosecutor have uncovered evidence that Cardinals officials broke into a network of the Houston Astros that housed special databases the team had built.

According to law enforcement, the St. Louis Cardinals obtained info related to internal discussions about trades, proprietary statistics and scouting reports.

Subpoenas have been served on the Cardinals and Major League Baseball for electronic correspondence.

The attack would represent the first known case of corporate espionage in which a professional sports team hacked the network of another team.

A spokesman for baseball’s commissioner, Rob Manfred, said in a written statement: Major League Baseball “has been aware of and has fully cooperated with the federal investigation into the illegal breach of the Astros’ baseball operations database.”

What is being considered is that the hack was designed to wreak havoc on the work of Jeff Luhnow, the Astros’ general manager who had been a successful and polarizing executive with the Cardinals until 2011.

Under Mr. Luhnow, the Astros have accomplished a striking turnaround; they are in first place in the American League West division.

Source: NYTimes