Astros: No apology necessary from any of the players!

History

Like I mentioned, even with all of its negative posts, social media can lead to some meaningful education. In my trolling, I stumbled on some history of sign stealing that further drives home my lack of need for an apology from the Astros.

1. One Pitch Away, The Players’ Stories of the 1986 LCS and World Series, by Mike Stowell, published in 1995, quotes Mike Scott who pitched with the NY Mets from 1979 to 1982:

"“There’s all kinds of things that go on.  When I was with the Mets, we had a TV monitor in the bullpen. It was just zeroing in from center field.  You could see every sign the catcher gave.  We could stand out there, and if we knew it was a breaking ball, boom, we could give the hitter a sign. “Some people want to put a big morals thing on it. It’s just part of the game. It’s not brain surgery. It’s gamesmanship — people trying to win. It’s a game. And you’re trying to survive.”"

2. After decades of denials, in 2002, an article by David K. Li in the New York Post flushed out the Giants of 1951 who finally admitted to sign-stealing. The article describes the scheme and makes it clear that this is just another facet of the game, one that fans are seemingly not educated about.

3. A 2017 article in the Washington Post had some interesting timing and an interesting slant on the entire issue, seemingly having helped to bury the scandal that year involving both the Red Sox and the Yankees.

4. And on January 23, 2020, SI released this article by Tom Verducci depicting even more interesting facts about the history of sign stealing and how much it is ingrained in baseball.

So for all of the holier-than-thou fans and players who have jumped on the bandwagon making it seem like the Astros started this and were the only ones doing it, just please stop!!! Get off your high horses and stop pretending like you’re so shocked and surprised.

Moving on in 2020

The MOST important aspect of the Manfred Report keeps getting lost in the fray, both by the Twitter-verse and analysts on the MLB Network. Namely, the 2019 Astros were exonerated of all cheating by the Commissioner’s thorough investigation.

And in case you need to be reminded just how special the Astros of 2019 were, here are just a few of the awesome highlights from the 2019 team that history should NEVER forget:

• The 2019 Astros were the #1 team in all of the MLB in 2019.
• The 2019 Astros saw the most All-Stars of any other MLB team.
• The Astros 2019 rotation carried the number one and number two contenders for the AL Cy Young award in Justin Verlander and Gerrit Cole.
• The Astros lineup of 2019 had the runner-up for the AL MVP in Alex Bregman.
• The Astros lineup of 2019 showcased the ROY in Yordan Alvarez.
• The Astros defense was named the #1 defense in all of MLB in 2019.

Coming now full circle, this brings me back to my original thoughts that prompted this entire article — NO APOLOGY NECESSARY boys. Get back to what you do best — play ball. Cheating obviously is not your forte anyway, and even the numbers of 2017 prove you played better without the trash can.