Major League Baseball finally released its findings in the Houston cheating scandal and dropped the hammer on the manager and GM of the Astros, with a year suspension each.
Then, Astros' owner Jim Crane fired them for being ignorant of or complicit in the sign-stealing scandal.
The Astros also were fined $5 million and lost two first and second-round draft picks in the upcoming years.
But was that enough?
Jeff Passan took the temperature of baseball and many executives feel it wasn’t enough.
MLB also protected the players involved in this elaborate scheme from punishment, since they weren't in management, but in my humble opinion, MLB should release the names of the players and what they did to the press and the public so the fans can decide.
Baseball fans around the world don’t care about coaches or general managers, scouts and executives, but they do care about players, teams and World Series victories.
The Red Sox and their manager, Alex Cora also parted ways. Cora was considered one of the ring leaders of the scandal as the Astros bench coach in 2017 before being investigated as the Boston manager in 2018 for cheating as well.
Sports Illustrated's Tom Verducci is my hero. While others skimmed past the issue as much as possible to protect their friends, Verducci clearly stated what the Houston Astros did, and how they tainted the 2017 World Series.
"This was not a mistake. This was a scheme, similar to a Ponzi scheme, where it involves covert action, involves maintenance," he said.
He continued, "It began in the early 2017 season, with a runner going back and forth. Then, they started sending messages with smartwatches. Then they started using cell phones and Alex Cora was calling in the dugout phone back there. They went to the trashcan. Then they went to clapping and they went to whistling. This went on and on and what really got me was the report specifically says it continued throughout the 2017 postseason. That is the money quote, because we did not know that."
"The Astros won the World Series in 2017 with the help of a sign-stealing system, according to Major League Baseball. We learned that today. That is why that championship forever will be linked to the system that they employed throughout that year."
Well said, Tom.
And all Dodgers fans have a legitimate gripe about getting hosed by the Houston cheaters.
