Been in Canada (Toronto) a few days now and have had plenty of shade thrown at me (while wearing my stros hat)
Always good to know that integrity stands for benefiting off the cheating, and telling the truth when you no longer can.
The amount of people that think Fiers is “brave” and a “hero” for speaking out and don’t realize or ignore the fact that he did it as revenge is maddening
Fantastic interview with Lance Berkman tonight from Houston Sports Show: - Baseball is not a clean sport- Pitchers uses sunscreen (shows Jeter and a pitcher getting refs attention) - Berkman never won Silver Slugger- his steroid teammates, or fellow steroid users players did - Teams that won championships with steroid users - Game 7 on the road vs Dodgers
I'm sure not, because like the vast majority of athletes Berkman isn't a POS snitch who throws former teammates under the bus.
Spoiler There are at least seven lawsuits filed against the Houston Astros in the wake of the sign-stealing scandal, and until late Friday the team had not legally responded. Given the scorn that rained down earlier this month on Astros players and owner Jim Crane for seemingly downplaying the cheating, the club’s legal counter-arguments are also likely to garner little affection outside of Houston. The Astros’ initial legal response came in a lawsuit first filed last month by daily fantasy sports (DFS) players who claim the cheating corrupted their paid games. The 26-page Astros response states, among other arguments, that cheating is part of sports, and notes the team hit better on the road than at home in the infamous Minute Maid Park trash can year of 2017. “It is well established…that attendees or viewers at sporting events have no express or implied right to an event free of penalties, undisclosed injuries, rules violations, cheating, or similar conduct, and claims asserting such a right have been repeatedly dismissed,” the team’s legal brief said. “Even accepting the Complaint’s allegations as true, the alleged sign-stealing does not in itself render false any statement about the team’s strengths and successes. “If there is any implied understanding of fans, it is that rule infractions will occur during the games,” the team argued. The Astros’ legal response also made a seeming effort to minimize how important a role the sign-stealing scheme played in the team’s World Series success. “Plaintiff’s allegations that DraftKings users were disadvantaged by the Astros ‘not performing as well as expected in away games… as a result of not having access to the Trash Can Scheme or Replay Room Scheme,’ do not reflect publicly available information concerning the Astros player statistics,” the team said. “In 2017, for example, the Astros scored 395 runs at home (4.88 runs per game), while scoring 501 runs on the road (6.19 runs per game). In addition, the Astros hit 115 home runs while at home, yet were able to hit 123 home runs on the road. Furthermore, the Astros’ batting average improved from .279 at home to .284 on the road.” The Astros’ response in New York federal court followed replies late Friday from MLB and the Boston Red Sox, which are also named in the lawsuit. The three entities filed separate responses using different attorneys (MLB is planning a report soon on alleged cheating by the Red Sox during their 2018 World Series campaign). Like the Astros, MLB and the Red Sox in their legal responses contend cheating is part of the game. “Rules violations — large and small, intentional and unintentional, technical and game-changing — are a never-ending source of sports television, talk radio, web and elevator commentary by sports pundits and fans alike,” MLB wrote. “And fans’ general awareness of the potential for infractions is underscored in this case by the fact that clubs were publicly disciplined for electronic sign-stealing violations during the 2017 regular season.” The DFS plaintiffs claim statements made by the teams touting their skills is legal fraud. But the Red Sox termed such comments by club officials as “puffery.” “(E)ven if those statements did address the causes of the team’s performance, it is clear on their face that, as a matter of law, they constitute the sort of vague, generic, opinion-based puffery that uniformly has been held inactionable as fraud,” the Red Sox wrote. All three defendants cited the Third Circuit Court of Appeals 2010 Spygate decision when a Jets fan sued in the wake of the New England Patriots videotaping scandal. The court ruled that fans cannot sue based on alleged cheating. “In Mayer v. Belichick, 605 F.3d 223, 230 (3d Cir. 2010), a class action brought by an aggrieved New York Jets season ticket holder against the New England Patriots and the NFL based on the Patriots’ surreptitious use of videotape to capture their opponents’ signals, the court concluded that the plaintiff class did not have a cognizable legal interest in disclosure of anything about the methods of game play, even where they were in violation of NFL rules,” the Red Sox wrote. The teams and MLB also cited a similar fan lawsuit in boxing. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals last year dismissed a lawsuit brought by consumers against Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather for concealing that Pacquiao was injured before their fight that Mayweather easily won. In the DFS cases (there are two separate yet similar lawsuits), the three baseball defendants each contend the fantasy players are tenuously linked to the clubs, and thereby don’t have legal standing. In other words, it’s another way of saying the cheating scandal is none of their legal business. The other lawsuits targeting the Astros are filed by plaintiffs seemingly not as legally tenuous as DFS contestants. In Texas state court there are three separate cases brought by Astros season-ticket holders. Given the arguments made in the DFS cases, the Astros are likely to contend that fans, even if they are season-ticket holders, don’t have the legal standing to sue and that they already knew rules infractions are bread and butter matters in sports. “So they are going to say, there’s no implied promise not to cheat,” said Bob Hilliard, the attorney for two season ticket holders suing in separate cases. “They say, ‘Yeah we cheated. So what?'” Perhaps the most notable lawsuit is one filed by former MLB pitcher Mike Bolsinger, who claims he lost his job due to the Astros cheating. That case is filed in California state court. As the only non-fan lawsuit, so far, the team can’t rely on the Spygate and Mayweather fan litigant precedents. But the team in arguing in the DFS litigation that it did better on the road than at home, where the cheating occurred, perhaps is a glimpse at a defense. “Finally, their on-base slugging percentage improved from .812 at home to .834 on the road,” the team wrote in the response to the DFS lawsuit. “Because the Astros player performance statistics form the basis of…(the) allegations, these publicly available statistics are incorporated by reference into the Complaint and may be considered on a motion to dismiss.”
We have reached full on Astros derangement syndrome folks. You have guys like Fiers being lauded, guys like Yordan who weren't even in the majors in '17 getting boo'd, then guys like Marisnick that did play in '17 get cheered when he hit a homer for the Mets yesterday. The very same Mets that fired Beltran before he even managed one game.
this saga is super upsetting, not sure i will watch baseball this year. the biggest eye-opener for me is the players response. baseball has always involved cheating so why is this such a singular event? the union is turning their backs on the stros. i don't remember near this amount of shade and hate being thrown at those involved in the roids crisis.
Boyd being careful not to burn any bridges in case the Astros go looking for starting pitching midseason. Smart man.
