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Major League Baseball Won’t Strip Astros and Red Sox of World Series Titles
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If the Astros and Red Sox are cheating bastards, but they get to keep their World Series titles, then does breaking the rules really matter?
It goes back to the old saying – “if you ain’t cheating, you ain’t trying,” and while A.J. Hinch and Jeff Luhnow lost their jobs while the Astros were handed a monetary fine and other punishments, the discipline resulting from the sign-stealing scandal didn’t touch their status as “world fucking champions,” as Chase Utley would say.
Commissioner Rob Manfred was on Fox Business today with Maria Bartiromo, saying this (via the Houston Chronicle) –
“Whatever the impact of the sign stealing was, it could have changed who was in the World Series,” Manfred said on Mornings with Maria. “(It’s) absolutely unclear that the Dodgers would have been the World Series champion. I think there’s a long tradition in baseball of not trying to change what happened. I think the answer from our perspective is to be transparent about what the investigation showed and let our fans make their own decision about what happened.”
Manfred mentioned the Dodgers specifically there because the Los Angeles City Council passed a resolution, asking that their team be named champions in 2017 and 2018. Maybe the Dodgers have a legit gripe, but surely the LA council has more important things to spend their time on, instead of these meaningless and/or symbolic displays.
Time’s yours.
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com