The Villains That Are The Houston Astros

Image Via: Getty Images

By Alex Horton

Lets talk about the Houston Astros for a bit. I have waited to write this because well, everyone’s first instinct is always to quickly react and bash the person or in this case, people who have done wrong. I wanted to watch the dust settle from a distance and give a really good educated look in on this current cheating incident in baseball.

Cheating in Baseball

First lets start with sign stealing and cheating in baseball as a whole. There have been confirmed accounts of sign stealing since the early 1900’s and even as far back as the late 1870’s in baseballs early years. Where there is competition there will always be someone who is looking to gain a competitive advantage that helps them win no matter what it is. According to owner Bill Veeck the 1948 Indians stole signs from the scoreboard out in centerfield, the team won the World Series that year. There were the White Sox’s of the 80’s, who according to Jack McDowell were lead by Hall of Fame manager Tony La Russa in an elaborate sign-stealing scheme where they used someone on the scoreboard to relay signs. There was the stretch in the 80’s where the owners colluded against the players so that they didn’t have to pay higher salaries. The steroid era from the early 90’s to 2010, where it was rumored a whopping ninety percent of the league was taking steroids. This timeline leads us to the latest “travesty” to strike the Major Leagues. The 2017 Houston Astros and their Trashcan Banging Scheme.

The Astros Place in History

Now we set the stage of the importance and gravity of this scandal. By the time Veeck admitted to his 48’ Indians stealing signs it was well past a time where any of those players were even still playing baseball at a professional level and it was just universally accepted that it happened and people moved on from it. The 80’s White Sox didn’t win shit, so they were cheating but obviously it wasn’t that successful. The Steroid Era you may say influenced a number of World Series outcomes but when you don’t know an exact number or every guy who was taking steroids the safest thing you can say is that it was mostly a level playing field with both pitchers and hitters alike taking The Juice. The difference with this cheating scandal is that it influenced a World Series title. I really don’t care what Manfred says, because the numbers are so damning. The Astros were caught with their hand in the cookie jar, the whole league knew it and now they will suffer the consequences…. Well maybe. But we’ll get to that later. Manfred’s latest press conference revealed that the investigation found that the Astros were in fact using their trashcan-banging scheme throughout the playoffs, contradicting what Carlos Correa had told the press. This cheating scandal had been found to have actually influenced the outcome of a World Series. A championship, the whole reason these teams get together at the beginning of February and work till the season ends in September and playoffs begin. The End Goal. And the Astros “stole” it right out from under the Dodgers. Or that’s at least what Dodgers players and their fans will have you believe. I will say this is the first time where a scandal such as this in baseball has been proven to affect the outcome of a World Series.

The Punishment

Did the punishment fit the crime? Well from the case that has been built against the 2017 ‘Stros, probably not to be honest. Manfred dropped a toy plastic mallet on the team. A fine of $5 million, which by the way, is the max the commissioner can fine a team. The Astros lost a first and second round pick for the next two seasons, and 1 year bans for both GM Jeff Luhnow and Manager AJ Hinch, which just for contexts sake is one of the largest penalties ever levied in MLB history. But the punishment did not fit the crime. The commissioner has decided against setting a precedent of taking away a World Series title, and he could not levy any suspensions to players due to the immunity he granted for the truthful testimonies he got from them.

Whether people want to believe it or not, Manfred really didn’t do a terrible job. What more could he really have done? Could he have taken away the 2017 World Series title from the Astros? Yes. He sure could have but that also opens a door to past World Series titles and the magnifying glass that is the society we live in today and any future cases that might not necessarily warrant that type of punishment, but he backs himself into a corner because he has already set this precedent with the Houston Astros. We as baseball fans are going to have to just live with MLB players and social media absolutely bashing the Astros to no end. Never letting these players forget something that everyone will always remember, that they cheated, and they aren’t even really all that remorseful for it.

The Apology

Now this is where fans, players, the commissioner, and the entire baseball world should be furious and unrelenting. The apology that the Houston Astros and Jim Crane gave was the sorriest and most unconvincing thing I’ve seen in my entire life. Alex Bregman couldn’t have been less interested with it, and was more monotone than some of my History professors from college. Jim Crane refuses to take responsibility for something HIS players and employees did. And not only that actually believes that the bill doesn’t fall to him, the owner of the team. Not only do these guys just not get it but also they just made themselves look like even bigger assholes than we already thought they were. Guys that don’t play for the team like Marwin Gonzalez seemed genuinely sorry because well they play for different teams now that may have been affected by this scheme so why should he not be sorry? But the whole team seems to be on the same page, defiant, fuck the rest of the league and that they are going to be in the World Series and prove they don’t need the help. Maybe they don’t need it but they are really going to have to prove themselves and regain the trust of their fellow peers in the league that honestly may never come back no matter what they do in this league. The Astros apologized to no one with their piss poor excuses if they maybe talked about the truth and actually seemed sorry this whole thing might actually calm down a little bit but fuck it I guess if they want to be assholes you reap what you sew.

Who’s to Blame?

The lack of punishment, the players outspoken rage, and the apology that really wasn’t an apology. Who is to blame for this? Well we have the easy answer in Rob Manfred who the players have never really clicked with; they feel like after the ‘piece of metal’ comments that he is even more disconnected from the game and players than ever. Even the new playoff proposal has caught flak from players like Trevor Bauer who says that Manfred doesn’t understand what it will take to grow the game, that its not the games, it has to do with marketing his players. For a guy who took a swing at Mike Trout by telling the media he wished Trout would make himself more marketable, well there is no love lost between him and the players, and with the upcoming CBA ending he will again take a swing at the players making his popularity plummet.

Now we could blame the Astros players themselves like we have been doing but I think everyone else has gone and done a really great job and what more can I say that hasn’t already been said about how much they cheat blah blah blah. The players’ hatred of Rob Manfred is misplaced. Yes he could have vacated the World Series title from 2017, but I talked about the wormhole that would open. The players need to look inward to an organization that says they are there to protect the players. This brings us to Tony Clark and the MLBPA.

Rob Manfred said he tried to get the players to talk, I believe that part. And I believe the part where the Astros players didn’t want to cooperate, and of course steps in the MLBPA who wants immunity for testimony. Which of course Manfred, who wants this investigation to finish so that he can try to do as much damage control as possible agrees to. It was either no testimony which would probably lead to a more prolonged investigation, less penalties and transparency OR he gets the testimony and gives immunity and becomes a scapegoat like what has happened now. This has never really happened in the MLB before. This is one team of players who cheated their peers. Why would the MLBPA not look at the other teams and tell them to have their representative vote on the matter? Whether they should allow for these cheaters to receive immunity or not when it was the players who the Astros cheated against. The Union is in place to protect the players, which the MLBPA is the best union in all of sports, but shouldn’t they be looking out for the betterment of all their players? Instead of just looking out for the well-being of a few that got caught cheating? And of course this is why the Union is in place right? To protect the players that were caught because that’s what they are paid to do. So maybe there’s some blame to be spread around to all parties in this debacle.

Snap Back To Reality

All right boys and girls, it’s time to snap out of this fantasy world you live in now. The punishments for the Astros, this is the furthest its going to go, we won’t get more even if the players on the other 29 teams deserve to see this club burn. Tony Clark is Major League Baseballs Jimmy Hoffa, and the Union is really fucking powerful in this sport. Yankees fans and Dodgers fans need to actually look at those Series and think to themselves, even if the Astros cheated, who was the better team? Did it influence the games? Absolutely it did. The answer I come up with each time however is the Houston Astros. But both the Dodgers and Yankees put themselves in the position to lose their respective series against the Astros. Don’t get me wrong, I want to see the ground burn under the Astros and Jim Crane for what they did, I absolutely despise this team. But guess what reality is what it is, and you can guarantee the Astros will be playing for a chance to go to the World Series in October. Just because they cheated doesn’t mean they still aren’t one of the best teams in the league, all it means is that we now have a villain in baseball once again.