Bad couple of days for Houston Sports teams

[NoPantsChico]

Spring Training has started and somehow the Astros have continued to fully botch the aftermath. There’s going to be a crap-ton of plunkings and head-hunting this year.

[FrobozMumbar]

Cheating pieces of shit. If MLB does not pull their WS title, I'm probably done with baseball.

[KUGDI]

You should probably be done with baseball then.

[FrobozMumbar]

Yup. I'm holding out hope that a fan backlash will change their minds, but it's highly doubtful. And it's not that I think they should pull it just because the don't deserve to claim it; I fall more on the side of if they let them keep it then it does little to discourage cheating in the future. Why do I want to spend time and money on sport that basically condones cheating? I think this might be why I'm spending much more time these days watching sports like golf and tennis.

[KUGDI]

I think it's a little naive to think every consistently competitive team isn't doing something that's over the line. The Yankees doth protest too much.

[FrobozMumbar]

I think it's a little naive to think every consistently competitive team isn't doing something that's over the line. The Yankees doth protest too much.

So you think every consistently competitive team is cheating? Just in baseball or in every sport? Also, there's pushing things slightly over the line and then there's signaling the pitches to the batter on every single pitch during the World Series. That's WAY beyond "doing something that's over the line."

[beakumhawks]

Former Blue Jays pitcher is suing the Astros for ruining his career

https://www.si.com/mlb/2020/02/11/mi...-sign-stealing

[beakumhawks]

Here is a video where you can hear the banging

[KUGDI]

Yes. I think that in a sport like baseball with all the setup time between pitches, if you look at each consistently competitive team they're probably almost all going past the traditional cheating and crossing those lines. With the exception of whomever your favorite team is of course.

Football we've seen what the Pats would do. You have teams hacking and/or blocking comms. Filming practices. You can bet they have people involved in hacking/social engineering. They very likely have people on staff running psyops against opposing players of the field.

This isn't a case of one team doing it. It's a story of one team finally getting ratted out.

And so what if they pull the WS title? Unless that comes with a postseason ban they can be there again next year raking it in.

[NoPantsChico]

I think it’s the total lack of contrition from the Astros as well as the report that 10-12 teams had filed complaints with MLB that were essentially ignored, and the relative slap on the wrist that set this apart. I really don’t think it can be downplayed enough.

[FrobozMumbar]

Manfred is such a fuckin' pussy.

[NoPantsChico]

Manfred is such a fuckin' pussy.

The one thing I will say in his defense is that a lot of the criticism directed towards him (both by players and fans) should be directed to the union instead - particularly its leadership and the non-Astros constituents. Manfred offered the players immunity in exchange for their honesty during the investigation and apparently nobody batted an eye.

But yes, it's clear that he has no idea how to handle a crisis.

[beakumhawks]

Once again the Astros are caught stealing signs

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/...ns-confiscated