Did The Astros Get Away With It... Yes
As Spring training begins, the Houston Astros players have begun to apologize for the cheating scandal. Their apologies are mostly insincere and are being expressed only after they were caught cheating. In an interview with Tom Verducci, Carlos Correa asked if people think that the players are enjoying winning the World Series, and then says of course they aren't enjoying their victory and have to live with what they did. Funny, I remember the jubilant celebration when they won and during the parade. I do not remember hearing any remorse until after Mike Fiers blew the whistle. In fact, Carlos Correa did not apologize or even speak about the sign stealing until spring training and then only to defend Carlos Beltran and Jose Altuve (his teammates).
In my opinion, Commissioner Rob Manfred blew it. Cody Bellinger is right, the Astros, as a team and as an organization, cheated and stole a World Series. Even worse, they got away with it. True, the GM and coach were sacrificed but the players received no punishment, the penalty the team paid pales in comparison to the revenue the team generated from winning the World Series.
Commissioner Manfred said he needed the players to cooperate in the investigation and to do so, he had to promise them no punishment. His motivation was clearly to end this scandal quickly. He could have easily investigated without the players. He could have started with Jombay Media’s video of the trash can banging and spoke with Danny Farquhar. He could have offered the Astros pitchers immunity to help with the investigators and built enough evidence. At that point, the Commissioner could have demanded that the Astros hitters cooperate or face immediate suspension if they do not cooperate and the possibility of reducing any penalty he would impose for cooperating.
It seems that the Commissioner vastly underestimated the reaction to the cheating scandal. It is not just fans who are livid. Players are furious. From Cody Bellinger saying that the Astros stole the 2017 World Series and Jose Altuve stole the 2017 MVP award from Aaron Judge, to Mike Trout saying that a lot of guys lost respect for some of the Astros players. Former pitcher, Mike Bolsinger is even suing the Astros over their cheating, claiming it derailed his career. The player reactions show how serious the Astros cheating is to them. This animosity among players is unheard of in today’s game. Take for instance the performance enhancing drug scandal which was front and center in the 1990's and early 2000's. The PED scandal was wide-spread and likely included more than one hundred players. The PED scandal was about players cheating for individual advantage and the player reaction was not as strong. Few players, such as Hall of Famer, Frank Thomas, spoke out against PED use but as a whole, players were quiet and did not turn on others who were caught cheating, such as Ryan Braun and Alex Rodriguez. The players association even fought to prevent league wide drug testing for years until they realized the public was not behind them.
Today, players are suspended 50 games for testing positive for PED's, yet no Astros player will sit out for any games; a strong deterrent for players considering using PED's. The Commissioner found that the sign stealing scandal was player driven; it was a coordinated team, and organization-wide, operation to cheat to win. There has been nothing like this before. So what would a reasonable punishment for the players be? The 1919 Black Sox players were banned for life from the MLB for fixing games to lose the World Series. Pete Rose was banned for life for betting on his team in the 1980's. Both actions were quick and decisive and sent a message to players. Okay, maybe that is a little harsh, but sitting for a year would certainly be fitting.
Rob Manfred recently said “First, it never happened in baseball, and I’m a precedent guy,” defending his decision not to strip the Astros of their 2017 title. That is a ridiculous argument because he is saying that he cannot impose a penalty that hasn’t been done before. A precedent has to be set some time and this is one of those times. Second, looking only to the MLB is too narrow. True, the MLB has never stripped a team of a title, but the NCAA has done so, recently stripping the Louisville men’s basketball team of its 2012-2013 title. Baseball has set many precedents, such as banning the 1919 Black Sox from baseball for life. Stripping Houston of the 2017 World Series title would have been a bold precedent setting move.
