I would like to preface this entire article by stating a few facts before I dive right into MLB’s sign stealing scandal involving the Houston Astros and Boston Red Sox. 1) I am a diehard, bleed pinstripes, scream at my t.v., frighten the wife and kids Yankee fan. I am also of pretty damn sharp sports mind and will not let my bias overshadow any facts or any realistic scenarios involving punishments handed down or the situation as a whole. I’m not going to yell and scream for them to give the title back because that’s asinine. Pitchers still had to pitch and defense still needed to be played. I will get more into that part later. 2) The Houston Astros and Boston Red Sox upper echelon management, manager, players, staff all participated in techniques outside the realm of the rules of the game of baseball and got caught cheating. That is fact. That information cannot be debated here. Now that those 2 things are out of the way, I can state where my mindset is based on the information that has come to light the a few months ago and again these past 48 hours.
First, as a Yankee fan, it needs to be said I am well aware that a few players have been caught cheating that donned the pinstripes in the past. The likes of Alex Rodriguez, Jason Giambi, Roger Clemens and even Andy Pettitte have no room in my mind or in anyone’s that values the tradition of the game of baseball mind to be considered as genuine players that achieved greatness the right way. Same goes for Mark Mcgwire, Barry Bonds, and Sammy Sosa among others. You get where I’m going with this. Their records are tarnished, their stats have an asterisk, they cheated! That is absolutely no different than what the Astros or Red Sox did. These coaches and players had cameras installed , had monitors installed, developed a system to steal signs being relayed to the pitcher from the catcher, and then found a way to communicate what pitch was coming to a hitter by banging on a trash can in the tunnel leading from the dugout down to said monitors. These are also facts. There is video evidence of this where you can hear the trash cans being hit. That is blatant and obvious cheating and a significant advantage over the opposing team. If you want to steal signs, do it the old fashioned way. Get a man on 2nd just how they have been doing in the game for 100 years! I have no problem with the latter tactic, it has been in the sport forever and well known throughout the league that it occurs. Players can adapt to that scenario. Catchers can switch signs while men are on base, pitcher can hide his grips, so on and so forth. However, there is no hiding from being unknowingly filmed and watched meticulously as you go through your normal routine and sign progression. There is a ridiculous disadvantage when the batter knows what’s coming and all they are left to do is watch for location of the ball coming in. They have now taken out half of the art of hitting, taking away the accomplishments of the guys actually guessing and doing it right.
There is a statistical anomaly that’s exists in this whole situation. During the 2017 regular season, the Houston Astros actually performed better on the road than they did in their own stadium. This brings me to the point that they can’t strip Jose Altuve of his MVP award (Aaron Judge finished 2nd in the voting). He was just as dominant on the road, having an outstanding season leading them to a division title. There’s no way you can punish him when no matter where he was, no matter if he had knowledge or not, he lit it up and earned the award. However, in the postseason, the differences are glaring especially during the ALCS against the Yankees. The Houston Astros won all 4 games at Minute Maid Park averaging 2.5 more runs per game and batting at a significantly higher clip than the 3 games they lost at Yankee Stadium. I remember watching that series thinking “Man, these guys are just unstoppable at home”. Now we know why. The Astros went on to win the World Series. Now for those of you that say Rob Manfred should have stripped that title, I say stop it. They still had to pitch well. Not all of the players on the team participated. How can you punish an entire team by stripping away a title from them when there many players who weren’t involved? You can’t. The title stays in Houston.
Now for the fallout. Astros GM Jeff Lunhow and Manager AJ Hinch were suspended a year and ultimately lost their jobs. They also lost draft picks and 5 million dollars. 2017 Astros Bench Coach and Now Manager of the Boston Red Sox Alex Cora was let go by the team although punishment has not been handed down by the league yet. Lunhow’s punishment is whatever, as a GM to knowingly participate in this kind of scheme probably means he’ll never work in the league again or at least I would hope so. As for manager AJ Hinch, I think it’s absolutely bogus! Things just don’t add up. He states in the report that he didn’t know what was going on for the most part. However, if the plan involved banging on a trash can, and he heard that going on during a game how in the heck did he not know what was going on?! Did he think his team was just drumming away on a can for fun?! Complete bullshit coming from this guys mouth. In his statement released after the suspensions came down, he admits to doing nothing to stop it. Exactly. He knew about it and did nothing to stop it. That’s why he should have been given the boot from the league for good. As for Cora, he needs to be banned for life as well. He was apparently named numerous times as the orchastrater and leader of the entire thing. He then took this same tactic and led a different team to a world series title, cheating the game twice! See ya! This sport has no place for crap like this. Do it right, do it fair, or get the hell out! The players will not be punished. I agree fully with this decision. It is way too hard to punish every single player who was on that team. Some players are retired. Some players are on different teams, ultimately punishing their new team who most likely didn’t know what was happening and signed the player thinking he had done nothing wrong. It’s not feasible. It’s not plausible. However, there is an interesting situation arising in this regard. A player on that 2017 Astros team, Carlos Beltran has since retired and has now been hired as the manager for the New York Mets. Does Rob Manfred make an exception and punish him? Or does he keep him in the same realm of player with no punishment? Or do the New York Mets make the decision to fire him before he even gets 1 game as manager in? I don’t know. The Mets will have a deciaion to make. If they feel strongly enough that Beltran’s involvement was great, then he will be fired. They will do it save face in the media and they will do it because it would be the right thing to do. But in my opinion, as a player at the time, Beltran cannot be punished by MLB. They have to stay consistent across the board. Major League Baseball did a great job in making a statement that rules violations of this nature will not be taken lightly. Investigations will be thorough. Punishments will be swift and severe. The game will not attacked by people trying to gain an edge outside the realm of the rules. For this I applaud their efforts and decisions.
That is where I stand. There’s many different ways I could have gone. I understand arguments from all sides of the situation. To me, this makes the most sense, they are my real feelings and real reactions.
Thank you for reading! Please take the time to comment and share your thoughts. I look forward to it!-Nick Mac
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