sports Houston Astros punished badly for Cheating

[Luigi 7,868]

Two months ago an investigation was started by Major League Baseball looking into allegations of the 2017 Houston Astros stealing signs during the World Series. I tried my best to keep away from the drama, but now, based on MLB’s findings, the allegations were confirmed. 
 

Commissioner Rob Manfred has handed down a handful of punishments to the organization. The teams general manager Jeff Luhnow and field manager AJ Hinch were both suspended for the 2020 season without pay, but team owner Jim Crane was spared. Crane announced that both Hinch and Luhnow have been fired from their positions following the findings, which include former starter Mike Fiers admitting that they used a hidden camera to steal signs for what pitches to expect. 
 

The Astros have also been fined 5 million dollars, which is the highest allowable fine under league constitution, and will not have first or second round draft picks in 2020 or 2021.
 

I’ve provided a link to the official news article from MLB.Com about the situation, which includes a PDF report released over the investigations findings. As a hardcore MLB fan, I’ve found this news rather odd at first, but now that the word is out that they did all this, I just can’t believe how other fans must be feeling

https://www.mlb.com/news/astros-sign-stealing-penalty

[Troblems 5,608]

I could care less about sportsball, but I do look forward to digging into the findings of the tech. Mark Rober did this exact thing about 6 months back, and while I'm not his biggest fan because of his vigilante-style "justice", I gotta respecc a NASA man. That being said, this won't be the last time this happens, and if the MLB wants to wise up, they should make secure communications for teams so that players, or anyone else for that matter, takes it upon themselves to do garbage like this. I'm sure it's happened before, it's just that these dunces were dumb enough to get caught.

[Patty Thundersnow 4,129]

The fact that they punished the Astros for 'cheating' when every single other team cheats as well is hypocrisy.

.

[ZiggWheelsManning 7,339]

Whelp, the 2020 season is over and boy those Astros were dealt full loaded pain.  Except they denied Oakland a trip to the ALCS.  I sense a pattern here, Houston "wins" the World Series, loses the ALCS to Boston, loses the World Series to Washington D.C., loses the ALCS to Tampa Bay.  Are we expecting Houston to make another World Series trip next year?  Or will we see the Yankees be the ones to break the hearts of the Dodgers: The Defending Champions.  As the Yankees have done so several times in their existence, hopefully it won't come to that.  One has to wonder if the Astros' actions that very year were that of a generic mustache twirl evil laughing man, or was there something more going on that motivated these guys to cheating.  Was it as toxic and complicated as politics?  Was it something another team did masses of evil towards the Astros, many years before that 2017 season?  Could it have been the Dodgers, the Angels, or the Mariners?  Not helping that this happened a few months shortly after the Cubs won the previous World Series.  So none of the Astros managers objected or took a stand against the players for those fateful schemes?  They could have just quit their jobs quickly over this before it even began.  What if the Cleveland Indians used that exact same sign stealing?  Let that sink in.  

[TransitPony 219]

This is old news, but I must imagine Houston is not happy with the team right now. The year they won the World Series was when Hurricane Harvey hit the area, and the Astro's win was a big boost of morale for the city which was going through tough times that year.

[ChB 18,532]

Their 2017 title should be vacated.  The fact that Commissioner Manfred didn’t do that shows how little he cares about the integrity of the sport.  
On the bright side, everyone now knows that they cheated to win, and no one (besides delusional Astros fans) will ever take them seriously, the next time they bring it up.

Edited December 6, 2020 by ChB