Major League Baseball came down hard on the Houston Astros.
But not hard enough.
The Houston Astros were found to be stealing signs for much of the season and the playoffs in an elaborate scheme with a centre field camera, a monitor near the dugout and banging a trash can to indicate to the batter if an off-speed pitch was on its way.
The manager, now fired, was so against the practice that he smashed the monitor on two occasions, but never put the complete kibosh on the practice.
The G.M. also got fired, the team was fined $5 million and lost their first two draft picks in the next two MLB drafts.
But there is one glaring problem. This electronically-aided sign stealing system happened the same year they won their first and only World Series Championship. It’s a championship that is now tainted, a championship that should be wiped clean of the record books like collegiate sports does and the Olympics do for their clear cheaters.
I won’t recognize them as World Series champs after this and neither should the history books.