This is so silly, because it assumes that there is ANY way to handle this situation. There is no amount of groveling that will placate a lazy, biased, narcissistic media. If Crane could somehow voluntarily give up the championship, they'd still want the 2017 players banned or suspended. If the players were banned or suspended, they'd still want Crane to sell the team. If Crane sold the team, there would be something else. There's a book about this, but it's probably too high a reading level for these people. Does anyone honestly believe there's some threshold that is somehow enough penance to make everyone drop this? Does anyone actually believe this would even be a blip on the radar if everything was exactly the same except it was the NY Astros, San Francisco Astros, LA Astros, Chicago Astros, etc? Mattress Mack nails it in his op-ed on the matter in the Chronicle. They've done more than enough already.
Really? You have it so hard? You used a foreign substance on the field... you cheated. You played on a team that cheated... gladly took his WS ring... then sold out his teammates...... allegedly had illegal relationships with underaged girls...... and now is considered a “hero” after being the biggest self serving ******* in the whole affair.
Reggie Miller has the gall to bring up the Astros scandal on a Rockets-Warriors telecast. I honestly don't hate Reggie but **** off with that!
Big Papi kept it real like he always had, he said Fiers was a snitch ... EVERY team that was competing for the WS had their own method and Fiers was the first to snitch on his. Now they're laughing with each other in a rush to pile on the Astros because they were dominated by a team with superior talent. It is very simple school yard bullying of the "smart" kid.
I would like to expand on this foreign substance part of the argument. My buddy and I were having this conversation the other day about the ethics of what the Astros did. When we had this discussion I argued that using a foreign substance is closer to unethical than stealing signs. Just because stealing signs is as much a part of baseball as throwing and catching the ball. It is just funny that everyone steals signs, but "oh no, you cant steal signs better than us!" This is basically what we are dealing with here. Not even to mention that the rules on it were obviously unclear enough for Manfred to not even want to entertain punishing players bc he knew they didnt know where the line was. And there was an obvious line since the Astros were already cleared twice before. So, I say all that to lead back around to this. Someone stealing your signs? There is a defense to that. Chang them. Teams shifting on your pull happy hitter? There is a defense to that. Slap it the other way or learn to push a bunt. A guy is using a foreign substance to get more spin on the ball? Where is the defense? What can the hitter do or change to be better prepared for that? We are seeing sliders with tighter spins than ever. Our own guy throws a freaking 90 mph fastball (not saying he uses anything, bc I honestly have never really paid attention). But, point is, using a substance makes you better and there is nothing a hitter can do to defend it. And that's not even to mention that a pitcher is successful 75% of the time by sheer nature of the game...but that's not good enough, let's be greedy and make my stuff better and throw no hitters when I am probably the worst pitcher ever to throw multiple no hitters. Give me a break.
When it was first brought up I was like F this here we go again with the media just piling on, but when they started talking more it actually sounded like they were blasting Manfred for calling the WS trophy "just a piece of metal" in relation to Championship trophies across all sports. Miller was uncharacteristically very complimentary of Harden all night calling him arguably the league's premier scorer several times, supportive of him for drawing fouls on his three point attempts and even applauding him for his defensive effort...this was actually the first Rockets game in a long time where the commentators did not sound like casuals.
Not sure if it's been posted, but thought Joe Posnanski had some good points regarding the buzzer theories, and what MLB should be doing about it. https://joeposnanski.substack.com/p/the-astros-experience I've always enjoyed reading his writing, regardless of whether it's baseball related, and he seems to be one of the premier Greinke whisperers as well. Heck, they should just ask Zack whether or not Altuve had a buzzer, since he doesn't seem to have much of a filter and would probably give you the straight truth
Speaking of buzzers... This is just a random thing I thought about. But instead of making up crazy conspiracy theories, why not move the game forward and use some kind of buzzer system between the pitcher and catcher, with a remote for the buzzers easily concealable in the glove or something? idk
So? How is it different than NFL QB's calling a play at the line? They'd obviously need to use code words... and there are far more iterations of code words you can develop/change vs. finger signals. Just mentioning it because its obviously a technology that is already implemented in football and wouldn't require much to adapt... vs. this mythical buzzer system that has never been used.
The Astro’d 2 movement by little leaguers is pretty funny. “I can’t change the past. I was an Astro 2.”
