On Tuesday, the New York Times reported that the Red Sox had used an Apple Watch to steal signs from the Yankees during a series in Boston last month. Major League Baseball doesn’t seem to view this as a big deal, and it’s unclear if the Red Sox will even be punished, but that’s naturally not going to stop the entire Northeast Corridor from freaking out about it. Combine the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry with Boston’s post-DeflateGate defensiveness about all things cheating and you’ve got a story built for sports-talk radio.

Oh, and also the tabloids.

As you might expect, tabloid newspapers in both Boston and New York really seemed to enjoy themselves Wednesday morning.

In New York, both the Post and the Daily News put the story on their respective front pages: 

The Post, the Daily News and Newsday all chided the Sox on their sports pages as well.

In Boston, the Herald went a bit easier on the Sox, employing an Apple Watch graphic and spinning the scandal as evidence this Red Sox team is “flawed.”

So who did this cover best? Our vote goes to The Daily News’ front page, which used a simple but clever headline (one the Post also used for its back page) with an amusing image of literal dirty socks.

No one wants to see this sign-stealing incident blown up into the next DeflateGate, but in case it is, as least we’ll get some good tabloid covers out of it.

About Alex Putterman

Alex is a writer and editor for The Comeback and Awful Announcing. He has written for The Atlantic, VICE Sports, MLB.com, SI.com and more. He is a proud alum of Northwestern University and The Daily Northwestern. You can find him on Twitter @AlexPutterman.