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Riley Carlson

Emily Kane

RC-1000-178

16 November 2020

Astros 2017 Championship: Legit or not?

Have you ever felt as if you have been cheated out of a game, or you should not have

lost? This is how the whole MLB felt after the Houston Astros won the 2017 World Series.

Shortly after winning the World Series the Astros were caught in the act of cheating throughout

their entire playoff run and most of the regular season. They used the video monitor from center

field to see the signs the catcher would use to tell the pitcher what to pitch. As the Manager saw

the signs they would bang on the trash can a certain number of times to tell the hitter whether it

was a fastball, or offspeed pitch. This does not sound like much but as a hitter if they know what

type of pitch is coming their way it can be extremely helpful. Half of the skill of baseball is

guessing what the pitcher is going to throw next, because players have to time their swing based

off of that.

To no surprise the Astros hitting numbers went up after this and many teams were

surprised as to why. Once players realized the Astros cheated, everyone thought they should get

penalized for it and their title should be stripped. Arguably the best player in baseball Mike Trout

said “It’s tough. They cheated. I don’t agree with the punishments, the players not getting

anything. It was a player-driven thing. It sucks, too, because guys’ careers have been affected. A

lot of people lost jobs. It was tough. Me going up to the plate knowing what was coming? It

would be fun up there. A lot of guys lost respect for some of the guys”. He was not the only one

either; plenty of other people around the league did not agree with the way the MLB handled
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things. From players, to coaches, to managers, everyone believed the Astros should have their

title stripped from them. Houston’ ended up being fined $5 million and stripped of their first and

second round picks. At the end of the day was this punishment enough? Or should the Astros be

stripped of their World Series title entirely?

First we have to understand how we got to this point in baseball. Nobody knows exactly

who created baseball and what year it was truly made but for the longest time baseball officials

believed it was created by a guy named Abner Doubleday. The story goes that Doubleday

invented Baseball in the year 1839 in Cooperstown, New York. Then Doubleday went on to

become a civil war hero as Baseball grew more and more in small towns. This is not true at all as

there was a guy named Abner Doubleday, but he says he has done nothing with the game of

baseball. So all we have to go off of is a small group of men in 1845 created a club and named it

the Knickerbocker baseball club. From then on the game of baseball grew and grew until it

became America’s favorite pastime. From the beginning, baseball was always a gentleman's

game. To this day everyone shakes hands with the other team after they win to try to keep the

integrity of the game. So when teams cheat it tarnishes the reputation of the sport of baseball.

This is not the only reason but it is one of the main reasons why everyone is so upset with the

Astros.

One of the most famous cheating scandals in baseball history involved Pete Rose, former

player, and at the time, the manager for the Cincinnati Reds. Rose decided he would bet against

his own team and try to make extra money since he was the manager. This worked out well for

him until August of 1989. The MLB figured out what Rose was doing and issued him a lifelong

ban from baseball. The MLB takes these things seriously, and since it only affects one player it is

easy for them to punish said player harshly. It is harder though, for the MLB to punish entire
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teams. This is why the MLB struggled with punishing the Astros. They did not want to punish

the team too harshly, but in doing so, they actually were too loose on a team that cheated its way

to a World Series title.

The MLB did not always used to be this soft though. The way they handled the 1919

Black Sox was ruthless but also necessary. The 1919 Black Sox made it all the way to the World

Series just so they could lose on purpose. Eight of the players on the team bet on the other team

so they could win money. This worked for them at first but once the MLB found out they

suspended all eight players on the team for life. The MLB used to have no tolerance for this sort

of behavior and now they are starting to relax a little bit about it. This is not flying well with a lot

of the players and managers around the league as they want to see the Astros get punished

severely for their actions. Before we judge the Astros completely though, let's try to understand

the history of the Astros, and why they may have wanted to win so bad that they cheated.

The Astros organization was originated in the year 1962; their name at the time was the

Colt .45’s. This name quickly changed three years later into the Astros, and they have not

changed the name since. Since originating in 1962 it took the Astros 18 years to just make it to

the playoffs. They made it in 1980 and lost in the NLCS to the Phillies 3-2. They then lost to the

Dodgers in the NLDS the following year also 3-2. Then five years later they lost to the Mets in

the NLCS 4-2. In all of these years they had the first seed coming out of the regular season. This

means they are severely underwhelming when in the playoffs. They were highly favored to win

multiple titles they just simply did not win. They have had some of the worst luck in the playoffs

compared to just about every team other than the Cubs. The Astros then went into a slump and

did not make the playoffs again until 1994. Led by the MVP of the league, Jeff Bagwell, they

came roaring back to reclaim the first spot in the conference. The Astros as an organization had
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high hopes, especially the fanbase, except there was a major player strike this year effectively

canceling the playoffs. Fast forward to 2004-2005, both of these years the Astros had a great

team but could just never get to the World Series let alone win one. Fast forward ten years, more

of the same for the Astros, they end up losing in the ALDS to the Royals 3-2. At this point the

Astros as an organization are ridiculously desperate and just want to taste the sweet taste of

victory after winning a world championship.

The Astros’ manager during this World Series run was a man named AJ Hinch. Hinch

was a former player but never really played in any super important games and did not find much

success on the professional level as a player. He averaged a .219 batting average, with 32 home

runs, and 112 RBI’s. Over his six year career as a player he played for the Athletics, Royals,

Tigers, and Phillies. He was tossed around to so many teams because he could not find a team

that truly wanted him and he was not a good enough player to be kept. As a player he was a

fighter though, he so badly wanted to win a championship. After playing he became a manager

and still did not have as much success as a manager either at first. He was first hired by the

Diamondbacks as an interim manager but was shortly fired after two seasons. Then he was hired

as the Astros manager five years later and things started to turn around for him. He made it to the

postseason in his first year and ended up losing in the ALDS. This still was not good enough for

the greedy Hinch as he wanted a World Series; especially after not making it to the postseason

the next year. This is where he and the rest of the Astros decided they would do anything

necessary to win the World Series they coveted so much.

The manager, owner, fans, players, and the Astros organization as a whole was desperate

at this point. With all the losing that has gone on in all of their careers they were ready to win a

championship. The players were also just as hungry as everyone else as they were young at the
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time with not a lot of experience. They too wanted to experience the thrill of winning a World

Series. This is when the Astros all decided the garbage can method, to signal to their players

what pitch was coming, was a good option.

All of the information on the Astros scandal came out a couple years later in 2019. Once

the league figured out all about the Astros actually cheating, the players started to implement

unwritten rules when playing against the Astros. These are dirty rules the players use as almost a

punishment for the Astros. Compared to all other teams the Astros were hit by pitches

significantly more than everyone else. Pitchers would purposely hit players on the Astros more

as a punishment for them cheating years ago. Another thing teams would do is step on the

Astros’ runners feet as they tried to reach first base. This would result in broken toes sometimes

but at the very least it would hurt immensely. Certain things you just do not do in baseball or

there will be consequences. For example, as a pitcher, if you throw at a hitter intentionally and

the hitter knows most likely there will be a fight. Many baseball enthusiasts are strongly against

unwritten rules as it takes away from the integrity of the game. Just as the Astros cheated,

throwing at their players intentionally because they cheated takes away from the integrity of the

game just as much.

At the end of the day, the Astros have a history of cheating now and it not only

diminishes the credibility and integrity of the Astros but baseball as a whole. Baseball needs to

take cheating seriously and do so the punishments and consequences need to also be enforced as

such. This is why I, and much of baseball, believe the Astros need their championship stripped

and this situation should be dealt with harshly.

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Annotated Bibliography

History Staff. “Who Invented Baseball?” History.com. 27, March 2013.

https://www.history.com/news/who-invented-baseball

This article helped me as it allowed me to understand the history of baseball a bit more dating

back all the way to 1839. This source is credible because it is an article by History.com and they

fact check all of the articles they write.

“Players Turn on MLB over Houston Astros Cheating Scandal; Justin Turner Says MLB

Commissioner Has Mishandled CaseMike Trout Says Houston Players Should Have Been

Punished.” The Guardian (London, England), 19 Feb. 2020. EBSCOhost,

This article shows the players perspective of what went down with the Houston Astros and the

2017 world series. It was posted by The Guardian and was written by a multitude of staff at The

Guardian. I found this article using Appsearch and I believe it will help in my research of

whether or not the astros should get more consequences for their cheating.

Tyler Kepner The New York Times. “Astros Are Tuning out the Haters; Many Remain Angry at

Houston for Cheating Its Way to World Series Title.” The Toronto Star (Toronto, Ontario), 2

Oct. 2020, p. A19. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?

direct=true&db=edsgit&AN=edsgit.A637159795&site=eds-live&scope=site.

This article from The New York Times shows the Astros perspective and how they are going

about dealing with the criticism. It was posted by The New York Times and written by Tyler

Kepner. Tyler Kepner is The New York Times main baseball writer. He has been writing articles

in The New York times about baseball for a decade. I found this article using Appsearch and I

believe it will help in my research by giving me a perspective from the team.

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Weber, Emilio. “Understanding the Houston Astros Cheating Scandal.” UWIRE Text, 2020.

EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?

direct=true&db=edsgea&AN=edsgcl.613111243&site=eds-live&scope=site.

This article written by Emilio Weber can be found on The Wesleyan Argus. It is very helpful as

it describes how the cheating scandal happened in 2017 and what exactly the Astros did. Emilio

Weber is one of the main sports writers for The Wesleyan Argus. I found this article using

Appsearch and it will help me in my Research proposal because it gives me plenty of

background information on the Astros cheating scandal.