The sign-stealing scandal involving the Houston Astros and Boston Red Sox has finally come to close, resulting in fines, suspensions, and firings. The Astros fired both AJ Hinch, their manager, and general manager Jeff Luhnow, and the Red Sox expelled manager, Alex Cora. However, the New York Yankees remained clean, and what did it cost them? A World Series in 2017 and the retention of their pride as an organization.
The New York Yankees deserve to be angry:
In Game 7 of the 2017 ALCS, veteran lefty CC Sabathia featured to help propel the Yankees to their first World Series in eight years, unfortunately, he was unable to do so.
“It’s weird, like it changes all the time,” Sabathia said during an appearance on Showtime’s “Inside the NFL.” “When I first heard it, I was upset, and then as investigations went on…I was like, well, we can’t go back and play the games…but as more information started to come out, I’m like, we played a seven-game series in 2017, ALCS, and we lost really on kind of like one pitch.
“As everything’s been coming out, and the more facts that we get, it’s getting frustrating man, to sit here and know that late in my career I could’ve had a title, maybe ’17 or maybe ’18, but we got cheated out of a team kind of doing something that’s not within the rules of the game.”
Sabathia has every right to be upset with the way Houston cheated their way through the regular season and playoffs, eventually winning it all. Realistically, Aaron Judge lost the MVP accolade to Jose Altuve because of his heroics during the playoffs. The splits between home and away are vastly different for the Astros, which further indicates their sign stealing and methods for relaying the codes to their batters.
The Yankees’ veteran pitched advocated for the stripping of the World Series Title from the Astros, which is justified after all the uncoverings.