One of the biggest storylines heading into the 2020 baseball season is the Houston Astros and the aftermath of their cheating scandal. A number of MLB players expressed their disappointment in the team for cheating, but players from other sports are also angry. Los Angeles Lakers star, LeBron James took to Twitter in February to share his thoughts on the Astros.
“Listen I know I don’t play baseball but I am in Sports and I know if someone cheated me out of winning the title and I found out about it I would be F—ing irate!” James said. “I mean like uncontrollable about what I would/could do! Listen here baseball commissioner listen to your players speaking today about how disgusted, mad, hurt, broken, etc etc about this. Literally the ball is in your court(or should I say field) and you need to fix this for the sake of Sports!”
Videos by PopCulture.com
The Astros are accused of sign stealing in 2017, which is the year they won the World Series and later in 2018. It has led to their manager and general manager being fired and the team being fined $5 million. The team also loses their first and second-round picks in the 2020 and 2021 draft.
“It is very clear to me that the culture of the baseball operations department, manifesting itself in the way its employees are treated, its relations with other clubs, and its relations with the media and external stakeholders, has been very problematic,” Manfred wrote in a nine-page statement. “At least in my view, the baseball operations department’s insular culture — one that valued and rewarded results over other considerations, combined with a staff of individuals who often lacked direction or sufficient oversight, led, at least in part, to the Brandon Taubman incident, the club’s admittedly inappropriate and inaccurate response to that incident, and finally, to an environment that allowed the conduct described in this report to have occurred.”
The one interesting thing about the punishments is the players haven’t been suspended or fined, which has led to other MLB players expressing their frustration with the players.
To see something like that, it’s damaging to baseball. It’s anger,” Markakis said per USA Today “I feel like every single guy over there needs a beating. It’s wrong. they’re messing with people’s careers.”
