Major League Baseball brought down the banhammer on the Houston Astros for their sign stealing cheating scandal. The punishment was not nearly severe enough. The Astros were fined 5 million dollars and stripped of their first and second round draft picks for the next two seasons. General Manager Jeff Luhnow and field manager A.J. Hinch were both suspended for one full season. Shortly after the news broke the Astros fired both men. Boston Red Sox manager Alex Cora was also involved in the scandal. During the 2017 season he was a bench coach for the Astros. Before the commissioner’s office had a chance to discipline him, the Red Sox dismissed him from his position.
I feel like many of you that there needed to be a more strict punishment. Many are demanding that Houston’s 2017 World Series championship be vacated, or that the World Series trophy be taken away. The Los Angeles city council is demanding that the Dodgers be crowned World champions.
Here is the problem with that, the Dodgers can be named champions and the Astros can be denounced as World Series winners but they will never be able to give the Dodgers and their fans what we so desperately crave….our moment.
That moment. You know, when the last out is recorded and the players and fans embrace in celebration and jubilation. That moment when the commissioner awards the Dodgers the World Series trophy in a Champaign soaked clubhouse. The championship parade that would have been held in downtown Los Angeles days later. The Dodgers and their fans were robbed of those moments that they so richly deserved, and no disciplinary actions can give that back to us.
Sleazy and greedy MLB commissioner Rob Manfred clearly cares very little for the integrity of the game. He’s an executive brought in to maximize profits and perpetuate the analytics movement. The man is trying to eliminate the minor leagues. That should tell you where his priorities are. This is why I miss Bud Selig. He wasn’t perfect and yes players were on steroids during his reign. But at least you could tell he actually cared about the game. A far cry from the scummy Rob Manfred.
As for the latest baseball debacle, stripping Houston of draft picks just simply isn’t enough. Seeing the men responsible for the deplorable cheating get canned helps, and gives u a little comfort, but again it’s not enough. The Dodgers didn’t cheat. The Dodgers may be clueless and inept at times, but they are a group of honest men. They play straightforward honest baseball. They should be rewarded and not victimized.
Yet we routinely see teams that cheat reap the rewards. It’s sad, disgusting and unfair. However we live in an unfair world. The Astros were stealing signs. They used technology, namely video monitors to see what signs the catchers were putting down, then banged on a trash can to signal the hitters at the plate. They had cheating stations set up in the clubhouse. Their executives and coaches even emailed the entire team detailing their plans for cheating. It was an organizational scheme created for the sole purpose of gaining an unfair advantage over the Dodgers and other teams.
The Nationals knew it. That’s why they changed their sign sequences several times during the 2019 World Series. I wouldn’t be surprised if they were still doing it. What’s important here is not giving the Dodgers an empty crown. What’s important is to properly and continuously publicly shame the Astros (and Red Sox, who also appear to have cheated). The punishments were not nearly severe enough. The Dodgers deserve justice. Dodger fans deserve justice. The city of Los Angeles deserves justice. Nothing else will suffice.
LA City Council, as well as many Dodger Fans want more than just a slap on the hand. They want the Dodgers to be declared the champs in 2017 and 2018. I feel their pain, but I’m just for vacating the titles, and ALL involved In the scandal, heavily fined, suspended (Loss of salaries earned), or banned from baseball. The Teams should be put on “Double Secret Probation” (ie: Animal House). Owners should be fined more than a mere $5M, and forced to play Minor Leaguers as replacement players for two-three years, or forced to sell their franchise. Cheaters do not belong in baseball, but as with the “Juicers” MLB fails to ban them from Baseball, or strip their records from the record books. MLB allows these cheaters to continue to make a living in baseball, as Coaches and Managers.
The “moment” is lost, and can never be recovered. The offenders already celebrated, and laughed to the bank. MLB refuses to strip their rings, trophy, or title. To declare the Dodgers as co-champs is meaningless, and the Dodger Fans who got taken to the bank will never be able to recover their losses.
You have to also take into consideration, that the Dodgers had their chances to win, even with the cheating going on, but their bats failed to show up time and time again with RiSP. They really do not deserve the recognition as Co-Champs.
Vacate the titles, and be done with it. Fans, I think it is about time you wise up, and stop wasting your hard earned dollar on this circus. Until the Dodger ownership shows that ”they are in it to win it”, boycott Dodger Stadium. I have refused to contribute to this fraud for seven years, this year will make eight. I have laughed to the bank, with all the money I saved.
But, at the end of the day…. I still am a Dodger Fan, and baseball nut. Funny, isn’t it? go figure.
A couple of things. First, 5 million is all the Stros could be fined according to the CBA. Second, Cora will probably, even though he was fired by Boston, get a stiff penalty. He, more then anyone else, or any organization will pay the biggest price. Some see a lifetime ban coming. Hinch will at some point be hired by another organization. Carlos Beltran is out as manager of the Mets. Mutual agreement was the press release. But, it would have been extremely hard for him to be effective as manager of the Mets with this cloud all over everything. I agree that the punishment does not fit the crime. Vacating the title is the proper thing to do. Returning the trophy and the rings should also be part of the punishment. A story today claimed Altuve and Bergman were wearing electronic buzzers to tell them what was coming. If this is true, then those guys should be punished too. Cora was the mastermind of this along with Beltran. But Beltran, because he co-operated will no doubt not be punished. The Stros were 2-2 at Dodger Stadium. But the game that mattered the most was game 5. A 13-12 slugfest where it seemed the Stros knew what was coming at every critical moment. Yeah, Kersh blew a 4 run lead, and then gave up 2 more before Maeda allowed the tying run. But if the Stros were cheating at that point, that game was never played on the up and up. Had they not been cheating, and not knowing what was coming, Kersh, who shut them down pretty good in game one might never have allowed that many runs. It may never have gotten as close as it did. The Dodgers put up 12 runs. The offense was clicking. Had they won game 5, they would have went home up 3-2 instead of down, and the game 6 win would have clinched the series for them. In 2018 as much as it pains me to say it, they were totally outclassed. The Red Sox were a far superior team. Their pitching shut down the offense totally. And one player more than any other battered Dodger pitching. A journeyman first baseman, Steve Pearce. I do not believe Boston would have lost that series period.
MLB should extend ban to all involved, video/camera guys, clubhouse guys involved, trashcan manufacturers (that’s a joke Michael), every damn person who participated or had knowledge should be banned and fined, in varying degrees of course (that wasn’t a joke Michael). Titles vacated and annotations put in all record books pertaining to clubs and the individual players that benefited by knowing what was being thrown to them. If those guys had buzzers in their pockets they should have their balls cut off (that was a joke Michael).
Very good piece Scott, bravo!
Ha ha Thanks
No, I think cutting their balls off would be just about right.
Spot on!!!!!!!!!!!
Let me ask you all this…the very least the Commissioner, who is gutless should do is award those forfeited draft picks from the Astros to the Dodgers for both 2020 and 2021. What do ya think about this here?
Besides doing what ya say is about right for those cheaters, how about then locking them up in a padded cell for the entire 2020 and 2021 seasons!
Padded cell no, cell with cement floors and cinder block walls and no furniture sounds better
Whatever they give those guys for sentences they ought to give the Dodger owners and Friedman for cheating their fans out of enough talent to win a World Series. They suck.
No punishment would provide any justice. Dodger Fans cannot be compensated for the sorrow and disappointment of losing to cheaters. Players who try to play by the rules get laughed off the field. Players will continue to cheat and destroy the integrity or our national pastime. Cheating is a part of any game. But to go to such extremes is appalling, to say the least. I’m sure the players were laughing their asses off, while Dodger players and fans stood dumbfounded, wondering what the hell happened.
The blame all starts at the top. Owners and MLB are the sharks, but as long as the money keeps rolling in, without any accountability, then nothing will change. Players are mere overpaid puppets, led by example. When someone is paying you millions to cheat, you cheat!
Change can only begin, when Fans refuse to feed these sharks.
Package206, like I said, at the very least we should get all the Astro’s forfeited draft picks for these next 2 years.
That would not happen Paul, and in reality it makes no sense. The Dodgers will not be rewarded for the Astros cheating. And some of those who are really guilty will not be punished. Astros players are under a gag order right now so not much is being said except they are steadfastly denying wearing electronic buzzers. Now if one of them ever fesses up that they knew what was coming because of the cheating, I would commend that player for doing the right thing. But I doubt any of them has the cojones to do that. The whistle was blown by a former member of the team, a pitcher. That took some guts to do. And I think he did it out of conscience and a genuine feel for the games integrity. What they took, more than just the championship, was the moment itself. Any of us who experienced the elation of watching them win a series knows the feeling well. In 55 I was too young to really understand since I was just learning about them and the game. In 59, 63, and 65, the games were played during the day, so I was in school and unable to watch. I did use my transistor radio hidden in my shirt with the ear piece wire going down my sleeve to my hand so I could look like I was leaning on it. My first visual experience of a win was in 1981. I watched the whole thing on TV. That game 6 win was a huge thrill. Then in 88. It was the same. Since then the only elation like that, that was even close was watching the Kobe-Shaq Lakers win. They robbed us of that joy you feel when your team is the champion. Since I am a huge USC fan, I got some of that in 2004. None of that is accomplished by awarding what would be an empty crown to the Dodgers. But we would gleam some satisfaction if they were stripped of their ill gotten gains. Manfred does not have the cojones to do that. What they received was a slap on the wrist that said, be a good boy and do not let it happen again. That is all. Alex Cora, will for good reason, pay the biggest price for this. Not the organization that stood by and let him cheat their way to a title. The moment was ruined. The moment was gained for them by usurping the rules. No amount of punishment will give LA fans that moment back. The only real satisfaction would come by stripping the title and declaring no champion for that season……Old friend, Dusty Baker being considered for manager of the Mets, and the Stros.
Michael, the Dodgers deserve something i would think because it’s not fair at all that basically those spineless Astros degenerates are basically getting away with MURDER! Now I am not saying at all to reward Dodgers with the 2017 WS but for crying out loud, the Astros should be at the very least stripped of theirs. THEY CHEATED their way to a WS win but The Lord does not care for cheaters and and those who lie and steal at all and perhaps one day, ‘Justice where for art thou” Don’t get me started on my opinions about that raunchy rodent Manfred! He made this whole situation far worse IMHO by that slap on the hand he gave to Astros. As a youngster I did see the 1965 WS win on TV, as well as the 1981 and 1988 WS wins. I have vinyl LP of the commentaries by Vin Scully during the 1981 season and on through the WS that year. Imagine that! Dodgers on vinyl!!!!!!!!!!
I at one time owned a copy of Cey, Monday and Johnson singing “We are the Champions” on a 45. Hey I feel your pain. But the only real justice the Dodgers could expect is if they did make Houston vacate the title. Plenty of precedence for that in Sports. The NCAA has done it many times in many sports. Just flat out declaring the Dodgers champion or giving them the Stros draft picks, which are from the way things look going to be at the near bottom of the draft fixes nothing. The worse part of this is the huge black eye this puts on the integrity of the game. I see no Babe Ruth around who can make this go away. Ruth saved baseball in the 20’s. Trust was wavering after the Black Sox scandal. And the interesting part of that is that all of the players were acquitted in a court of law. Only because the owners had given Landis unlimited power, did those players pay a huge price. Most of them never received the amount of money they were supposed to get. 2 were sure fire Hall of Famers. Eddie Cicotte, and Shoeless Joe. The one person who paid a bigger price than he expected was the Sox owner, Charlie Comiskey. His support of Landis cost him the core of his team, as a result, the Sox were a non factor in the AL and did not win another pennant until 1959. They did not win another world series until 2005. Defeating fittingly, the NL’s rep, the Houston Astros.
A lot of players starting to chime in on the cheating scandal. Exe Dodger, Adrian Gonzalez laid the task of making sure this never happens again at the feet of the commish. He thinks Manfred needs to drop the hammer on the cheaters. But Manfred does not have the balls. Strip and Belli have also made statements, and Darvish says he now believes that he was not tipping his pitches. Still waiting to see what happens to Cora and the Red Sox.
The Yankees believe they would have won the Series.
Is anyone really surprised by baseball’s response to this? Pissed, yes, but surprised? No. They clobbered Rose because he’s one guy and nobody really likes him. They let Bonds, McGwire, Sosa et al off because their popularity put butts back in seats after the strike nonsense. There are a lot of players involved in this and no way can they suspend them all. They could conceivably strip the title but it looks like they won’t. They are counting on everything calming down after Spring Training starts.
The fans might have some say only if they boycott. If fans refuse to go to any and all Astros games until they are stripped of the title then MLB would be forced to do something. But that won’t ever happen.
Tony Kornheiser thinks this will continue. In some form or another cheating in baseball will continue because there is no real disincentive to stop. Winning a Championship is worth millions. Many more millions than the fines.
Think about the players. They had to live through the torture, and the offseason, of failure. And watch cheaters get paid, since 2017, for being “clutch”.
I also think it very likely went far beyond the banging on the trash can covers. And it makes no sense why they would stop at the trash can covers and not do anything else. There are so many ways to communicate the pitches to your first base and third base coach. I would like to get the chance to depose Marwin Gonzales.
Feel so bad for Kershaw. And remember Beltran was on the Cardinals when they shelled him in Game 6. Notable was that in Game 2, Kershaw lost a 1-0 decision in which he became the only MLB pitcher ever to lose a postseason game where he gave up no earned runs and 2 hits or less, then in Game 6 the Cardinals seem to know everything Kershaw was throwing and hit him for 7 runs in 4 innings – when have you ever seen that except Game 5 against the Astros?
Mike Bolsinger (former Blue Jay reliever) is suing Astros for shortening his career in MLB. Blames it on sign stealing.
Astros were pounding Blue Jay pitchers in August of 2017, and Bolsinger was called in to stop the bleeding. Instead, the Astros immediately added 4 more runs. Bolsinger was yanked from the game, and cut from the team….. never able to return to his MLB career. Pitched well in Japan in 2018, but never able to latch onto an MLB team.
Here we go. Let’s see if this starts a trend…. “monkey see, monkey do”, “follow the leader”. Time to make that call to Jacoby and Meyers, or Dominguez Firm, Dodgers and Dodger Fans.