2020 - A SEASON FOR IMPLEMENTING ASTERISKS

Games or No Games

This is the year in which our country led other countries in something no one would ever want to lead - deaths.  Over 120,000 Americans died from the world’s most tragic viral pandemic, COVID-19 (RIP to those souls).

As a result, this baseball season has yet to begin.  This past March, cautionary measures were put into place throughout the United States aimed to lessen the transmission of COVID-19, including staying at least 6’ away from one another.  With that restriction, alone, fans would not be able to sit or walk near each other, the players would also have to stay away from each other, and the umpires would have to position themselves at least 6’ from the players and the bases.  Many other obstacles became apparently concerning such as touching the baseball.  For instance, if the virus is transmittable via touch, how could the players throw the ball after it was touched by another player?  The same concern is with fielding the ball.  Regular gloves are not made for professionals to grip and complete their expected accurate throws.  (Perhaps that need could be an idea for inventors and entrepreneurs to consider.)

Recently, some of the restricted measures by well-governed states had indeed lessened occurrences of COVID-19 related deaths, including New York State, which originally had, by far, the most incidents.  Since March, New York’s stringent restrictions apparently worked.  In contrast, some states lightened up on their restrictions and have since incurred increased cases and deaths.  Over the last few months, other sports began considering opening their seasons as their owners and players worked together.  But, most recently, about half of the United States began having increased cases of COVID-19, so the other sports began reconsidering their plans to restart (at least for now).

MLB’s team owners and players’ union also thought about starting the season, but they did what “they” always do, argue with each other over revenue and salaries.  Their biggest obstacle became themselves, not COVID-19.  Due to the lack of any peaceful resolution between the two parties, the commissioner of MLB (Rob Manfred) implemented his right to force 60 games to take place this season, beginning July 23.  Of course, that condition could (just like the other aforementioned sports) be changed if COVID-19 gets too far out of hand.

My opinion, which I felt for at least two months, was NOT to have a season this year.  I do not want teams playing 60 regular season games and then having to play 10 or more games of that total for playoff games.  To me, the ratio is asinine!  Additionally, the World Series winner would be discredited by almost everyone except the awarded “Champion Team’s” fan base.

No matter what happens, THE 2020 SEASON SHOULD NOW HAVE AN ASTERISK.

Conventional Sign-Stealing in Baseball

Before I even begin talking about the fines & penalties received by the Houston Astros and the Boston Red Sox over the past few months, I need to explain what happened back in 2017 with the Yankees and the Red Sox.  Each were accused of sign-stealing by one another.  The Red Sox used an Apple watch to transmit their opposing teams’ signs to the Red Sox players while the Yankees used the YES Network replays to help decipher patterns.  That practice by the Yankees was not considered an issue with MLB as other teams do that, too.  Also, some of the Yankees’ players and coaches used their bullpen phone as a form of communication from the bullpen to the dugout in a similar attempt to help decipher pitch patterns.  The investigation of the Yankees determined that the “substance of the communications was NOT A VIOLATION”.  In the end, both teams were reprimanded by the Commissioner and issued a fine.  Then, ALL teams were warned not to utilize any form of electronics or any other unconventional sign-stealing and, if they did, strong penalties would be implemented including the loss of draft picks.   [Recently, a group of Draft King users have requested for the secured investigational findings against the Yankees to be reopened as betting fans are trying to make an alleged case that they lost money because the Yankees may have had an advantage to win.]

Of course, as most baseball fans know, “conventional” sign-stealing has taken place by ALL MLB teams for over 125 years.  An example would be an opposing team’s third base coach deciphering their catcher’s signs to their pitcher and, in turn, immediately sending the batter a signal identifying what pitch was about to be thrown.  Predetermined signals from the third base coach are then illustrated to the hitter such as the coach touching his cap twice or turning his body in a certain direction.  Conventional sign-stealing is also attempted without any electronic devices.

VERY UNCONVENTIONAL CHEATING

Remember what I said above?  “ALL teams were warned not to utilize any form of electronics or any other unconventional sign-stealing and, if they did, strong penalties would be implemented including the loss of draft picks.”  Well, both the Red Sox (the first team that initiated the cause of the threat) and the Astros completely ignored that warning and executed very unconventional cheating.  After the warning was issued, they both used electronics and other means to not only decipher patterns of pitches, but to also signal the information to their batters in a LIVE manner. 

The Astros, for instance, orchestrated the use of their centerfield camera to read the opposing catcher’s signals and then communicated directly to the area outside of the dugout where garbage pails were placed to act as drum instruments.  The amount of times the drums were pounded represented a sound to the hitter to know what pitch was coming his way.  The punishment, after a very long investigation, was for their manager (AJ Hinch) and General Manager (Jeff Luhnow) to be suspended for a year without pay.  The team, instead, decided to subsequently fire them.  Their Assistant General Manager (Brandon Taubman) received a lifetime ban.  The Astros were also fined a mere $5 million and stripped of their 2020 & 2021 first and second round draft picks.  They won the World Series that year so many feel they should have been stripped of their title or, at least, THE 2017 SEASON SHOULD NOW HAVE AN ASTERISK.  During the beginning of Spring Training this year (before the COVID-19 stoppage), opposing teams were drilling them with pitches.

As for the Red Sox, they also orchestrated the usage of electronics (in 2018) to transmit live data to their batters even after only 1 year of their previous fine and warning by the commissioner!  The details of their wrongdoing were not made public.  They too won a World Series and, like the Astros received a lot of hate from ticked off players and coaches from opposing teams and retired players.  Many of them also felt they should have had their title stripped.  Instead, they were probably going to receive a suspension of their Manager (Alex Cora), but they quickly mutually agreed to part ways to avoid further scrutiny and bad publicity.  Their Replay Operator (J.T. Watkins) was suspended for a year and they lost their second-round draft pick for 2020.  During that year, Carlos Beltran was also involved so the Mets fired him shortly after they hired him to be their Manager, to avoid any more bad publicity for them.  As usual, MLB treated the Red Sox gently – what a surprise!

Just like the Astros won the World Series in 2017 and was found in violation, the Red Sox won the World Series in 2018 after being found in violation.  So, likewise, THE 2017 SEASON SHOULD NOW HAVE AN ASTERISK.

In summary of this lengthy article, in the last 6 months between two severe investigation outcomes and the scheduled shortened season there are now 3 World Series Championships that deserve asterisks - the 2017, 2018, and 2020 seasons.  You may look at that and see one glimmer of hope, the 2019 season.  Well, I hate to disappoint you, but that one is currently in question.  That's because the Astros (yes, them again) have been accused by many that they cheated during the 2019 season and especially during the playoffs.  In fact, it was during the winning playoff game against the Yankees which incurred the main cause of doubt by many baseball fans (not just Yankees' fans) because the video replay of the winning homerun by José Altuve against Aroldis Chapman became very controversial.  As he rounded the bases, he shouted and illustrated to his teammates not to touch his shirt.  Once he crossed home plate, scoring the winning run, he avoided his teammates somewhat (like he was a breakable piece of glass) and ignored the broadcaster while scurrying to the dugout to change his shirt before immediately returning to the field for the interview.  The video also showed some type of bump under his shirt.  Many feel he was wired with cheating devices divulging what pitch was coming!

Wow, a lot of asterisks alongside World Series' notations are needed!!