HAMMER HITS CHEATING ASTROS HARD, BUT WE WANT MORE!

AJ Hinch is a clown. Justice was served.  But dare I say... there needs to be more... much, much more.

If you live under a rock, today was the beginning of the end of the Houston Astros franchise. Cheaters never succeed, and if they do, then that usually means someone at the top that makes BAD  decisions is just as corrupt as the cheaters that do them.

But today is a victory. It's a symbol to save baseball for the better.  And all that smugness from AJ Hinch telling "sources" to show their faces if they believed the Astros are cheating are gone. That's because he's gone. That's because when he said that to the country, he forgot that former Astros would turn into opponents, and opponents don't keep secrets. While baseball may be a boys club, Hinch's arrogance came back to bite him in the ass.  I love this day so much.

Mike Fiers is a hero, you know. He didn't have to say anything about the garbage-can banging and the cheating mechanism the Astros used in 2017.  He spilled the beans and thank God for that. Because looking back, things just didn't seem right. Home runs with a flare for the dramatic against their opponents were almost too obvious... too staged... almost like the Astros knew what was coming.  Oh... that's right... they did.

There were little things about the Astros that never seemed right to me. For example, it began in Game 7 of the 2017 World Series against the Dodgers. There were 2 outs in the first inning and Alex Bregman stole third. I remember it clearly because it was a little odd. It was then that my 15 year old stood up and said, "Why would he steal third there? That's weird."  For me and my family, all baseball fans... that was the beginning for us. We became curious then, but we couldn't put our finger on it.

Why? Why were these plays happening, these timely home runs coming? Almost like they knew what was being thrown. We couldn't figure it out. Not until Mike Fiers spoke up. And thank God, because now... looking back, it explains a lot.

CBS Sports writes this about today's historic event:

"Houston Astros owner Jim Crane announced Monday that manager A.J. Hinch and general manager Jeff Luhnow have been fired. Crane's decision came shortly after MLB announced penalties for the Astros' sign-stealing scandal in 2017. As part of those penalties, Hinch and Luhnow were each suspended for one year. 

Crane, though, said he was going over and above those penalties and relieved Hinch and Luhnow of their duties. He is expected to oversee baseball operations department in the interim. According to multiple reports, current Astros bench coach Joe Espada will be named interim manager. Espada, 44, had been a candidate for multiple managerial openings earlier this offseason."

I'll say it again... Thank God.

And by the way, don't praise Crane as a hero here. He's just as guilty as all of them, but he's running the show so I guess he needed to make an example of Hinch and Luhnow. That being said, I wish MLB could fire this loser too. He's King Cheater. But anyway...

Look... it was obvious to me that the Astros were guilty after the signing-stealing scandal came to light. Not a single Astros player came forward to say they were innocent or guilty. In fact, they were silent. No tweets, no statements... they were hiding under their desks.  That's guilt, folks…. that's guilt.

The only weirdos you hear from are losers and irrelevant players like Logan Morrison coming out and calling the scandal "fake news".   NJ.com writes this:

"Morrison, a 10-year big-leaguer, ripped MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred’s report on the Astros’ sign-stealing scandal Monday afternoon.“The Manfred report that came out is straight FAKE news,” Morrison said before deleting the post a couple hours later."

There's a reason why he removed the post, folks. Because he's wrong and he's stupid too by the way. Really stupid.


What the Manfred report shows was that there was a system in place utilized by the Astros team. What it shows was that Carlos Beltran was the ringleader, and when Alex Cora went to Boston, he then helped the Red Sox steal their own signs.

While no players were reprimanded, they should be. That title should be stripped. They didn't earn it fairly... they cheated.  Why do I say that you ask? Because players take direction from coaches and managers... and last time I checked... AJ Hinch was in charge.

You can't sit there as a player and say... "Well, I didn't know Hinch, Beltran and Cora were cheating!  I didn't know that banging on the garbage can helped me decipher which pitch was being thrown. I didn't know. I didn't know." THEY DID KNOW... ALL OF THEM KNEW.

And that's where Manfred's decision on the investigation falls flat. I mean sure, the Astros were also fined $5 million and forced to give up their first and second round picks in 2020 and 2021. But there's a very important piece to this that makes me aggravated and something that Manfred really should have handled swiftly.... the players played... the players knew... the players are cheaters too. The Astros players need to hurt too on this one. They knew it was happening and said and did nothing. Even Justin Verlander.

This makes me laugh, because this just goes to show how spineless Justin Verlander really can be.  With Detroit, Verlander was pissed about sign-stealing back in the day and that surfaced after Hinch got fired. The Score quotes Verlander when he was with the Tigers here:

"It's not about gamesmanship anymore. It used to be: 'Hey, if you can get my signs, good for you.' In the past, if a guy on second (base) was able to decipher it on a few pitches, I guess that was kind of part of the game... I think it's a different level now. It's not good."

And this is what I'm talking about. When it's not against your team, I guess he's OK with it. Verlander didn't like stealing signs and yet his team was in the thick of it in 2017 and he says NOTHING.  I have news for you... whether he was directly involved or not... he was an Astro and he knew it was going on. Kind of makes him look pretty guilty too.

Yup Verlander, you're a cheater too.

And so look, many think this is over now... but it's not.  Forever the Astros will have a black eye. If they start winning, they will be questioned. If they don't, it's because they aren't cheating. Are they tainted? 100% yes.  They are despicable people?

Yup, all of them.

And that brings me to the biggest scumbag of them all... Alex Cora.

Word on the street is Cora is about to get crucified... and I'm hoping he's banned from baseball forever.  I mean sure, suspending Hinch for a year is nice... firing he and Luhnow is awesome. Fining the Astros $5 million? Amazing. BUT WE WANT MORE.   

Pete Rose gets banned from baseball for life for gambling.

Alex Cora should be banned for life for cheating. It has to happen. It really has to.  The New York Post writes this about this loser:

"If you thought the punishments levied at the Astros following MLB’s investigation into sign-stealing were harsh, just wait. 

Current Red Sox skipper and former Houston coach Alex Cora likely still faces penalties after it was determined that he “arranged for a video room technician to install a monitor displaying the center field camera feed immediately outside of the Astros’ dugout.”... 

The report also stated that Cora “was involved in developing both the banging scheme and utilizing the replay review room to decode and transmit signs.” Commissioner Rob Manfred said he was not commenting on Cora’s punishment as the Red Sox are still being investigated for using electronics to steal signs in 2018. 

“Cora participated in both schemes, and through his active participation, implicitly condoned the players’ conduct,” Manfred wrote in his nine-page statement, which outed a lengthy list of wrongdoers."

Cora is a clown.

He knows what he did. Cora needs to be punished severely.  Fired? Yes, Fined? Sure. Banned? 100%.

BYB will be reaching out to Pete Rose the next few days. We will try to get an interview and his thoughts on this whole mess.  Personally, this sign-stealing scandal is much worse to me than betting on baseball at this point.  Why? Because the entire Astros franchise was involved.  And Cora? He needs to be the example.

Scare the shit out of the Astros.
Scare the crap out of the Red Sox.

Clean up the game... the time is now Mr. Manfred!

Justice was served today... but yes... more needs to be done.