By: Nick Frieburger | Staff Writer
This MLB off-season has been nothing short of entertaining, which is shocking for what has been deemed a dying sport, but it’s getting national media attention for all the wrong reasons.
In the month following the Houston Astros World Series loss to the Washington Astros, allegations started swirling about the integrity of the team and whether their 2017 World Series title was actually earned.
Mike Fiers, a pitcher for the Astros during their 2017 World Series title and now a pitcher for the Oakland Athletics, told The Athletic in November about cheating he saw happening in 2017. He told them that the Astros placed a camera in centerfield to film the opposing teams catcher and what signs were being given to the pitcher. The video was displayed in the Astros dugout where a player would bang on the trash can to signal to the batter what pitch was coming.
The Athletic released a story about what happened and it created shock waves throughout the whole baseball world. As a result, the MLB and commissioner Rob Manfred launched a full investigation into the incident. In their research the MLB found that the Astros cheated in their 2017 World Series Championship season as well as the following 2018 season.
Following the investigation, the Astros fired their manager A.J. Hinch and their general manager was suspended for the whole 2020 season. Players and coaches from that 2017 Astros team who are no longer with the organization were also affected. Red Sox manager Alex Cora, the bench coach of the 2017 Astros, was fired by Boston for his role in the sign stealing. New York Mets manager Carlos Beltran, a player for the Astros during 2017, was fired by the Mets before he could even manage a game. This scandal did much more than just affect the score of a game, it put people out of jobs across the league.
The majority of baseball fans and players still do not think these punishments are enough. The Astros players were not punished due to the fact that they were granted immunity as long as they participated in the investigation.
The Astros can’t be talked about without their cheating scandal being brought up. Now that the new season is almost here and spring training is upon us, it’s safe to say the astros players are hearing it from the fans.
It doesn’t seem like the boo’s and hate will stop anytime soon and the Astros players can’t do much about it. Before spring training, the players publicly apologized for their actions and roles in the whole ordeal, but still people found it to not be sincere.
One of the ways that would definitely make the fans and opposing players happy would be for the league to vacate the Astros 2017 title, which seems unlikely. The Astros players could also try apologizing again, but this time being much more sincere in recognizing what they did and how it was wrong.
In all likelihood, the Astros just have to accept the fact the hate will keep coming for a while and their best bet is to just hope it starts to fade away. No matter what they do, people will always consider the 2017 World Series champion Houston Astros cheaters and undeserving of their championship.
