Photo: Carmen Mandato / Getty Images
The Houston Astros are in the World Series again. After winning the American League championship on Friday they are one step away from making fun of it all baseball … laugh out loud.
This time the Astros haven’t resorted to cheating – at least that’s what we all trust – to advance to the World Series, their third in the past five years. But for that reason they have not ceased to be the villains of baseball , on the contrary.
If the Astros win the Fall Classic, hurt by the signal theft scandal systematic orchestrated by the team during the seasons of 2017 and 2018 will open again and this time it will be more painful than ever for baseball.
A Houston championship either against Braves or Dodgers in World Series (Atlanta led 3-2 in pregame series Saturday) would be humiliating for everyone because it would mean that the cheater again got his way.
If the Astros are champions in the following days it will be virtually impossible for the rest of baseball to ensure that the world title they achieved in 2017 against Los Angeles or the pennant previously won against the New York Yankees were due to signal theft.
Not even Alex Cora, orchestrator of the traps, could with the Astros
No one has been able to stop them this year, not even the Puerto Rican Alex Cora, the main executor of the traps of the Astros in 2017 when he was his bench coach and now as a Red Sox manager he saw Houston leave his team in only 1 run during the last 26 innings of the Championship Series, including the decisive shutout in game 6.
Cora was one of the few individuals sanctioned by MLB for the matter of cheating, all being suspended 2020. But the Astros players who participated in the theft of signals were not punished and their title of 2017 was not bypassed to general outrage.
The outrage was greater when after uncovering the details of the theft of signals at the end of 2019 the team stars half apologized for cheating. His words were not sincere. Their attitude was mostly defensive, as if assuming they were going to be the champions anyway.
They became the most hated team in the country , but in 2020 did not have to deal with the general contempt from fans due to the empty stadiums due to the pandemic. Beyond the retaliatory punches from some pitchers like Joe Kelly , they came out well off.
This year they have listened to the public, they have seen the garbage cans being thrown into the field and the truth has Stoically put up with well-deserved offenses and provocations. Directed by Dusty Baker, a respected man who has been the perfect parapet to its recent history, they have managed to regroup.
They are an excellent team, but they will forever carry the shadow of their traps for which they did not pay enough punishment.
If no one can stop the Astros in the World Series now that they don’t really have a team as complete as that of 2017 and if no one can give them what they deserve, who could put their hands in the fire and ensure that the traps made a difference in that occasion?
If the Astros lift the trophy, in the back of the eyes of those who cheated before there will be redemption, but redemption mixed with arrogance and cynicism. Then in their locker room they will laugh out loud at the Dodgers , the Yankees, the players who denounced them, the press and everyone.