For the past seven months, the Houston Astros have faced lots of scrutiny and criticism, as it was revealed they had successfully stolen signs during both the 2017 and 2018 seasons. It was especially concerning as the team went on to beat the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 2017 World Series. Following this incident, general manager Jeff Luhnow and field manager A.J. Hinch were suspended for the entirety of the 2020 season, and once the announcement of this suspension was released, were fired by the Astros. As a result of their cooperation with the MLB’s investigation, no Astro players were punished. However, the team was stripped of their first and second-round draft picks for both the 2020 and 2021 seasons. Following these repercussions, a new coaching staff was brought on led by well known general manager, coach, and former MLB player Dusty Baker. Baker was then tasked in digging the Astros out of their hole they had fallen into, a task that takes lots of dedication.
There have been many articles on this topic, summarizing what happened, criticizing the team, predicting the fall out, and much more. However, this article will focus on something different, the players. In a situation such as stealing signs, that call often does not come from the player level, but from coaches and managers. Hence the punishments were given to the coaches, not the players. The athletes have been praised for their compliance with the investigation regarding the 2017, 2018, and 2019 seasons. However, none have talked about the difficulties the players may have been facing during those times.
As avid members of the baseball community, players and fans alike know the value of integrity in the game. As a player, this is stressed so much more, as it is implemented into your mind the moment you are able to understand the game. Cheating is one of the biggest ‘No Nos’ in any sport, but in baseball even the slightest action of rubbing the wrong thing on your hands as a pitcher can be seen as cheating. Teams normally do not want to face these consequences and respect the integrity of the game, but for the Houston Astros, their main worry was to not get caught. Knowing these regulations and expectations by the league, it mustn’t have been easy for the Astro players to go along with the plan. On the other hand, they had to listen to their coaches as well, as they have much more of an impact on the players’ seasons.
So, what were the players supposed to do? Go against their coaches plans for the season? Or disregard their known values of baseball integrity they grew up having? Neither option is a good one, but going along with stealing signs seemed to be the lesser of the two evils. Fortunately for the players, it also turned out to be. Nonetheless, those three seasons could not have been easy to play. Not only were the players faced with being bystanders to a wounding action to the integrity of the game, but also with keeping it a secret. As many people know, this too is no easy feat. As humans, we love to communicate and share with others, but in some situations, it is easier to leave some things unsaid. This is a prime example of one of those instances. Still, it is very tough to remain silent when a value is being infringed upon and there isn’t anything you can do about it.
Although the Houston Astros cheating scandal is of utmost importance in showing the severity of consequences following cheating, there is another disparity, the disregard for the players. Many things went into a successful two seasons of sign stealing, much of which is thanks to them. However, these players faced intrapersonal struggles that did not make it easy. With this in mind, let’s take another look at the Houston Astro players who allowed the cheating scandal to happen. Do you still have the same perception of them as you did before? Do you see them as the bad guys? Do you see them as the good guys? What would you have done if you were them?
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