With the first games of the 2020 spring training season quickly approaching, tension among Major League Baseball seems to be at an all-time high. A time when we should be talking about rising prospects and anticipated returns from injuries, it seems all news circles back to the Astros. Reporters are salivating at the opportunity to ask any player about the Astro’s tainted World Series title and even further beyond that. Many players are showing their anger and frustration with whole situation and whenever someone from the Astro’s or the commissioner speaks, they only pour gasoline on the fire.
With that said, as of today we have heard from three of the biggest names in baseball voice their opinions on the whole situation. Not surprisingly, all of the comments have been negative towards the Astro’s organization. To say it clearly people still feel cheated. Cheated out of an apology and cheated of an explanation. It all revolves around Manfred’s decision not to vacate the 2017 World Series title or suspend any of the players involved in the whole scheme. Instead players are pissed off, and rightfully so. We aren’t talking about any players either, three of the biggest stars of the sport have publicly voiced their displeasure for the whole situation. When your biggest stars talk about the situation you listen. Even Manure belittling the World Series title didn’t help to his agenda at all. Josh Turner ripped him apart, noting just how out of touch the commissioner is with the players. By no means did he want him to just gift the Dodgers a World Series. I think most people can agree that just wouldn’t make sense. He talks about “earning” it, as you’ll hear many players refer to it. The 2017 Astro’s didn’t earn their title at whole, having tipped the scales in their advantage for not only the regular season, but the post season as well.
The whole situation has been a whirlwind, and instead of heading towards a conclusion, it seems we are going to be repeatedly hit with new information on the matter. I’m sure the last place I’d want to be right now would be the Astro’s clubhouse. A mixture of awkwardness and regret, knowing very time a camera or microphone is headed your way it’s not going to end well. After a half-assed apology from your GM and two players, what do you expect? The only apology that felt real and sincere to me was Jake Marisnick’s, now with the Mets. Players feel cheated out of their justice, and it may be very well that they will dish out their own sense of justice in the future. You’ll hear many managers and players talk about not throwing at any of the players, hell there’s even an over/under for how many times a player will be hit. While I think that is not the solution, you have guys throwing 95+ that could seriously injure someone, there will be some players who will not care and wear the fine and suspension for hitting an Astro’s player. Although, with the control you should have at the MLB level, a little high and tight to back you away from the plate never hurt anyone. A little, “Hey just to let you know what you did was messed up…now I’m going to strike your ass out.”
As Turner explains, winning a World Series is a damn hard thing to do and that’s why players put in so much work. They put themselves in the best possible position they can to give their team a chance to win. For you to put in all that work for the year ultimately to lose a team that knew what was coming. That’s EARNING it. I understand that it would have been incredibly hard to pick out which player used the cheating towards their advantage more than others. The thing would have been really messy to work around, but to allow them to still fly that banner that says World Series champions is a spit in the face to every MLB player and fan. There is even a question as to whether or not they were still cheating in the 2018 and 2019 season using a more hidden method of relaying signs. Although Manfred’s report states that no such method was found, it becomes harder for us fans and players to believe him when the whole situation seems suspicious. I’m sure everyone has seen the video of Altuve hitting the walk off against Chapman to send his team to World Series. Showing him specifically asking his teammates to not take off his jersey. It even goes further when he immediately heads to the dugout to change shirts. Listen Chapman has two pitches, a fastball and a slider. It’s not surprising to be sitting slider on that pitch, but this comes after they’ve been caught. So, is it really that far-fetched to even think of the possibility of him using a buzzer? Once you’re found guilty, all things become fair game to be analyzed and criticized. And the fact the we were given the excuse that one; he’s too shy, and then two; he got a bad tattoo….mid-season…before the playoffs…on a spot that you would dive on regularly. To me it just doesn’t make sense and without a good explanation from Altuve people are going to continue to question it. It also becomes hard to believe after they won the World Series in 2017, they just completely stopped trying to steal signs. It’s hard to imagine them saying, “Okay we did it! Now let’s never do that again.” To me it seems, they found a new method other than trash can banging to relay sign because other teams began to complain.
It’s going to be extremely interesting to see how this plays out, not only in spring training games, but during the regular season as well. From the players response to the fans, it’s going to be something to watch. The Astro’s are going to get ripped apart from every opposing stadium, I’d expect it loud when they visit the Yankees. This is why I always loved hockey, where you could drop the gloves and punch someone you don’t like in the face for a minute. Like yeah, I’ll miss my next ab if I get to throw a couple punches. I need ESPN to be in the midst of making this a 30 for 30 because there’s just been so much to unpack. And trust me I have no problems with the art of stealing signs, when I wasn’t pitching, I had a clipboard in hand trying to decipher other coaches’ signs (shout-out the O-Line). It’s these little cat and mouse games that make the game of baseball so great, but never in my life I would have thought, “hmm, why not we put a camera to try and do this.” Not at all. Sometimes we would get them and sometimes the opposing coaches signs were so complex we couldn’t crack it. With the increase in technology, MLB needs to be proactive in order to prevent this from happening in the future. And one of the shittiest things about this whole situation, is that if Friers never came forward, would any of us know this actually happened?
The Washed Up Athlete 