Tuesday, February 18, 2020

Cheating Astros Should Forfeit A Season And/Or Series


The Astros organization used a video camera in center field to film the opposing catchers' signs to the pitchers.


I'm getting sick and tired of all the Cheating going on in our society today. From Corporations to Politicians to Professional Sports, the cheating has taken over the American idea of fair and ethical participation. And what's even worse is the penalty when caught, if any, does not fit the crime. Whatever happened to Truth or Consequences?

When the Houston Astros were playing championship baseball in 2017, I was happily rooting for them as they beatdown the Yankees and Dodgers. Though my SF Giants had to sit out the MLB Postseason I was locked into the games just to see the amazing Astros and their Giants-like push toward a World Series. They were a loveable bunch of players making clutch plays in thrilling games.

When it was recently revealed that the Astros used technology to steal pitching signals from opposing teams I was completely deflated. I thought, "come'on, say it ain't so Altuve." Then came the apologies, and confirmation that "Everybody was in the Loop." 

Nobody in the Astros organization can claim innocence. Silence in the face of cheating is complicity. The fact that they won a World Series should be proof that the cheating paid off. For the Astros owner to publicly state that he felt the cheating didn't affect the outcome is exactly what Corporate and Political cheaters do when caught with their hand in the cookie jar; deny the advantage that cheating gives. Don't they know that we know that's why organizations cheat in the first place? to gain an advantage over the competition.


My advice to Major League Baseball is to either have the Astros immediately "Forfeit" an entire baseball season and/or "Forfeit" the following championships:

2017 ALDS, ALCS and WS
2018 ALDS
2019 ALDS, ALCS


If the league continues to treat this factual cheating scandal with what seems like a Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney attitude, "We do that all the time; Get Over It!," I may find myself attending Little League Baseball games this season just to get a glimpse of what America's past-time was like before video cam cheating became the norm. Imagine what the tech-savy little leaguers are learning from this scandal; Cheating and Crime Pay$, time to get paid.

Come'on MLB, Your better than this. Whaddaya think this is, Trump's White House foreign policy? Its Baseball for crying out loud. And I can't just get over it.


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