We were all in shock when we flipped on any channel in late 2019 and saw that OUR Houston Astros were cheaters. After a depressing loss in the World Series to the wildcard team Washington Nationals in 7, in H-town as well; it couldn’t get worse then this. “The Houston Astros cheated their way to a title in 2017, by stealing signs”. I guess it could get worse.

If you don’t know what stealing signs is, or maybe even what signs are, let me enlighten you. In baseball, the catcher relays a pitch that he wants the pitcher to throw by showing a number with his fingers near his crotch area. When you know what the pitch is, makes it a lot easier to hit an outrageous amount of slams. Anyways, what the Astros did was they had a camera behind centerfield, which relayed to a TV in the dugout. A player/manager would bang a trash can in a certain way for a certain pitch to allow the hitter to know what pitch was coming. Is there a legal way to steal signs? Yes. But what we did wasn’t near legal.

I’m not saying that what the Astros did was okay. It wasn’t. Its unethical and its foul. But we, the people of Houston, are tired hearing cheater, cheater, cheater when other people did exactly what we did.

Ever heard of Alex Cora? I bet not. He was suspended for a year, along with AJ Hinch. He was the manager for the 2018 World Champion Boston Red Sox. When the Astros were being investigated for the scandal, they came across the Red Sox. Won a Championship. Cheated their way to it. Rockies? Cheated. Let’s go to the Bronx and see what’s going on in their dugout. Oh wait… Rob Manfred is too much of a suck-up to money to ever touch a Steinbrenner.

Baseball’s a broken sport. We know that. We know that the Yankees will always dominate because of money. Players and owners will never agree. But the one thing we had was fans. Decent fans with respect. Have some respect on the Astros. Altuve just won his 5th Silver Slugger. Jeremy Pena just won almost ever award imagined. Yet I continue to hear. Trash can. It’s foul.

If the game wants to be fair (which it never will), put someone else accountable for all of this. We arent the only team who cheated, so why are we the only team being punished? It’s unfair.

This year, the Astros proved everyone wrong. 4th pennant in six years. 2nd championship in 6 years. 9 All-MLB nominees. Awards galore. So if you’re still saying “it doesn’t count, take away the ring”. Take away Boston’s. Go investigate New York. They always do something. but keep the Astros out of your mouth. We just won the World Series. Not a trash can in sight.