Editorials

Astros Fan Feels the Club Has Suffered Enough After Sign Stealing Fallout

Over the weekend, the Astros held an ill-timed annual FanFest at Minute Maid Park in Houston. The event offered an opportunity for the team — players in particular — to show some remorse for the revelation that they were, in fact, stealing signs during their 2017 championship season.

They did not.



Even worse, All-Star second baseman Jose Altuve doubled down by proclaiming that the club will be right back in the World Series this year.

Bold strategy when afforded the opportunity to man up and apologize to baseball, to peers on teams they cheated out along the way… and to apologize to their fans for this ugly stain on the biggest accomplishment the organization had its 55 seasons up to that point.

With all that said, fans of the team have also been afforded ample opportunity to show remorse/disappointment/disdain for their club after learning that they were cheating. And commendably some have taken that route.

However, most feel ready to move on from it all and look to the future. Easy to do (and understandable, to be honest) when your club lost none of its players and still has a recent title to their name.

Back at Astros FanFest, fans that spoke with local news at the event expanded on that thought.

It’s obviously disappointing to hear that, but we’ve just got to move on and hopefully this year will determine a lot and see how this team reacts.

Where it gets questionable for fans of honest baseball is one fan’s statement that the Houston ballclub has “suffered enough.”

I think they’ve suffered enough with the penalties and losing the coaches. I think that’s enough. I think it was more than enough. I think we’re being made an example out of.

Reminder that MLB’s punishment affected no players that participated in the act of cheating.

Still, the general consensus of baseball circles feel that the Astros have not suffered enough. Moreover, with the flat out embarrassing way that Altuve and Alex Bregman handled the obvious questions they faced from media at FanFest, the feeling grows that the punishment may not have been enough to fit the crime. Perhaps they haven’t suffered enough yet.

Radio personality Rich Eisen took it upon himself to help Houston players with a more fitting attempt at damage control.

In a faux statement he prepared for the team, Eisen astutely addresses each point of apology that the players should have to make. While the entire statement is worth a listen (and starts in full with a set up at the 4:29 minute mark), here is one key section that stood out above the rest.

We are sorry. We apologize to our fans and to all fans of the game who are left wondering about our accomplishments in 2017, and perhaps if their team’s accomplishments were cut short by our actions.

For Houston and its fans — and for baseball — the day will come where we’re all ready to move on… but first the players will have stare each and every person affected by their actions and apologize in earnest.

NEXT: Shawn Green Talks Alex Cora and Cheating

Clint Pasillas

Clint Pasillas has been writing, blogging, and podcasting about the Los Angeles Dodgers since 2008. Under Clint's leadership as the Lead Editor, Dodgers Nation has grown into one of the most read baseball sites in the world with millions of unique visitors per month. Find him online on Twitter/X or his YouTube channel!

21 Comments

  1. That video with Bregman answering media questions should tell their fans that these guys haven’t suffered enough in fact they haven’t suffered at all and don’t care. They all got immunity and Bregman and that teammate next to him smirk arrogantly throughout the whole thing as they plead the 5th and laugh about it

    1. Bregman didn’t handle it right. He does give off arrogance.Tucker is his teammate. He wasn’t there in 2017. He seems like a pretty decent guy. I would cut him some slack.

      1. Tucker obviously didn’t do anything In 2017 but he was laughing alongside his buddy there and he was on the team last year when they also cheated

        1. Tucker wasn’t laughing about it. He seems like a decent guy. The report shows cheating in 2017- 2018. Cheating with all teams was much harder to pull off in 2019. MLB put personnel in all clubhouses to monitor teams. They knew they had a major problem. The Astros won 107 games. No proof of them cheating in 2019.

      2. Call the commissioner and leave him a voicemail. The number is easy to find if you search for contact Mlb and once you call use the dial by name directory. I also called the Astros today and and asked for Jim Crane. The operator put my right through, no questions asked. Of course he didn’t answer but I did leave a voicemail.

  2. Oh these arrogant little bastardos are going to quite the mouthfuls when they travel to opponents ballparks this year. Guess what you will be seeing; Garbage Cans, Sign Stealing Signs, Buzzers, oh it is going to be fun to mock the crap out of these losers this year. The fact that no punishment was handed down to any player was a joke. And then they still go around acting so pompous and arrogant. Can’t wait to see the Fans let them get the real punishment they deserve.

  3. Vacate the Astros 2017 title. Vacate Altuve’s MVP. Then we can start to talk about “suffering” enough. BTW it’s not “suffering”, it’s justice. Denial and lack of remorse just mean that more action should be taken.

  4. Awkward, evasive and unapologetic….not seeing remorseful….its obvious that the Astros are focused on trying to stay “on script” or some variant of that script. I concur,The Astros’ 2017 World Series Title needs to be vacated in the interest of justice. Also, individual players can be held personally accountable by donating to a charitable cause any of the cash and/or payment for endorsements they received as fraudulent “champions.” When the team is stripped of its (stolen) championship and the individual players pay back their financial benefits, then maybe….just maybe…coupled with a lifetime of franchise humiliation, the Astros will have “suffered” a little bit.

  5. I’m glad MLB cracked down on cheating in 2019. They should have done it sooner. At least 11 teams were probably cheating. It’s bad for baseball. They need to ban iPads and any electronics during games.

  6. How in the world can Pete Rose be banned for life (for betting on his own team to win), when these guys stole a championship? This is just as bad as the 1919 Black Sox scandal when 8 ballplayers were indicted on nine counts of conspiracy and all eight were permanently banned from organized baseball. All those involved in this cheating scandal need to be banned as well. Furthermore, MLB needs to establish very clear wording so that this threshold is never crossed again!

  7. The fact that none of the players have shown remorse for their actions (except the fact that they were caught) I find totally appalling and unacceptable. Title should be stripped! We don’t allow criminals to keep their ill-gotten gains.

  8. Shame on them. ALL players should be fined millions and should be suspended 180 games Immediately no more questions asked .They need to know what they did is so worng . What they got was a hand slap.

  9. The only way to really stop this cheating in baseball is to make the penalties so severe that no player would even consider it as an option…
    Possibly Manfred made a deal with the Astros to get the facts in exchange for immunity and a lesser penalty. Of course MLB just wanted to sweep this under the rug and move on. Probably didn’t expect this to explode like this. In my opinion, at the very least the 2017 title and any awards along with it needs to be vacated.
    Congress should get involved, as it did with the widespread MLB substance abuse years ago. They would be impartial and could rule objectively. This needs to happen or else nothing will change…

  10. As a Dodgers fan and a baseball fan it’s horrible. We’re teaching wrong morals in baseball to the young one’s that are coming up to the majors. It’s okay to cheat you just get a slap in the hand.POLITICS it’s not going to be fun to watch the game. Whether the other team is cheating or you’re own team is cheating. SAD DAY FOR BASEBALL.

  11. Let’s put the sign stealing aside for a moment and touch on something that is at the heart of what has transpired by all those involved, what is at the heart is a lack of a moral compass by those involved, that lack of moral compass allowed them to so easily sweep aside the possible ramifications and ugliness that would surround the ballclub and the individual players and the game of baseball, and with that said, it makes one think what else have they been willing to do that would be a stain on them as a person or as a ball club, it speaks volumes of their character, and it’s a character not to be admired or trusted or looked up to, because the moral compass that they use to navigate their way through life has taken them off course and has led them down a path that is crooked making their journey in life something that they can’t look back on and be proud of.

  12. So, the bank robber who was allowed to keep the money, is now the victim? You can stop the “suffering” by returning what was stolen. How easy is that? It’s called ‘guilt,’ and it lingers for a reason.

  13. The late great Coach John Wooden once said “Sports do not build character, they reveal it” . Clearly the entire Astros organization top to bottom, and apparently much of its fanbase, is severely lacking in character. Pathetic . . . and a horrible message to kids who look up to those players. The ripple effects of this scandal are endless.

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