Los Angeles City Council passed a measure today unanimously voting to urge Major League Baseball to strip the titles from the Houston Astros and Boston Red Sox for the 2017 and 2018 World Series respectively. This comes amid discipline taken by MLB against management of the 2017 Houston Astros.
Manager A.J. Hinch, GM Jeff Luhnow, assistant GM Brandon Taubman were all suspended by MLB for one year and subsequently fired from their posts. The Astros were also stripped of their 1st and 2nd round picks for the next two drafts as well as fined $5 Million. While Alex Cora, the teams’ bench coach at the time and supposed mastermind behind the scandal, has yet to be suspended by MLB but he has fired from his subsequent post with the Boston Red Sox also. Carlos Beltran, who shall receive no penalty from the league due to his involvement as a player, was also terminated from his new post as the New York Mets manager.
The intricacies of how detailed the sign stealing was done by the Astros is still debated. However, what is not disputed is that there was a monitor planted in center field recording the catcher’s pitch calls and then translated to the dugout who then translated that to the batter via beating on a trashcan to indicate whether a pitch was a fastball or off-speed. Essentially, it’s the equivalent of knowing where a quarterback is about to throw a ball pre-snap in football.
The effects of this scandal are paramount. Not only were the Los Angeles Dodgers, and possibly New York Yankees, robbed of a fair opportunity to win the Championship, but legacies were forever impacted. Clayton Kershaw will undoubtedly always be scarred with the notion that he couldn’t get it done in the post season. Yu Darvish was not even offered a new contract by the Dodgers largely in part due to his absolute abysmal game 7 against the Astros in 2017. Nearly everyone associated with the Dodgers have been carrying a huge burden of dissatisfaction from the fan base after being one of the biggest spending MLB franchises, but not claiming a title since 1988. Furthermore, it cemented years of successful team building by the Astros that led the framework for other up and coming franchises to pattern accordingly.
This measure is not a court order however; it does not mandate the MLB to do anything, its merely a strong suggestion. Similar actions were taken in Louisiana following the New Orleans Saints controversial loss in last years NFC title game, only to not be considered by the league. It appears the league has decided the impact of reversing history in this way would set too grand of a precedent to implement.
An investigation is still pending to determine if the 2018 Boston Red Sox were involved in a similar sign-stealing program considering Alex Cora operated as the team’s manager during that year.