MLB urged to strip Astros of 2017 title
MAJOR League Baseball faced calls to strip the Houston Astros of their 2017 World Series crown on Tuesday, with the prospect of further sanctions looming in the cheating scandal that has rocked the sport, as the Boston Red Sox parted ways with manager Alex Cora.
Cora, an assistant coach at the Astros in 2017, was repeatedly named in a scathing report by MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred as one of the ringleaders of the sign-stealing scheme.
Baseball was left reeling on Monday after Astros skipper AJ Hinch and general manager Jeff Luhnow were banned for 2020 and then sacked by the club’s owners.
The Astros were also fined $5 million and stripped of draft picks in 2020 and 2021 after Manfred’s report on Monday, which detailed an illegal sign-stealing scheme used by the team in 2017.
Although the penalties were among the most severe ever issued by the league, several commentators on Tuesday said they did not go far enough, with some calling for the Astros’ 2017 World Series win to be voided.
“The title is illegitimate,” ESPN pundit Stephen A Smith said “They should be stripped of their World Series crown. This is cheating.
“The evidence was so profound that one hour after the ruling came down, those dudes were fired.”
Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Bob Brookover also argued for the 2017 title to be vacated.
“While Manfred’s penalty was harsh, he could have sent an even stronger message by stripping the Astros of their 2017 World Series title,” Brookover wrote.
“Make them take down the banner at Minute Maid Park and vacate all records of their title.”
‘Scar across the sport’
Veteran Los Angeles Times columnist Bill Plaschke said that the Los Angeles Dodgers had been “cheated” out of the 2017 World Series by the Astros.
“The Dodgers were jobbed out of a championship that would have ended a 29-year drought, and what is MLB going to do about that?” Plaschke wrote.
“The Dodgers won’t get to claim the title. That damage has already been done. That parade has already been lost.
But the Astros should be forced to hand the Commissioner’s Trophy back to Commissioner Rob Manfred right now, vacate the title and forever leave that space in the record books as empty as the organisation’s integrity.”
The Washington Post ’s Thomas , meanwhile, said the Astros cheating in 2017 compared to the most notorious scandal in baseball histor y, t he Black Sox scandal of 1919, when eight members of the Chicago White Sox took bribes to throw the World Series.
“This scandal is a perfect illustration of why cheating in professional sports is so bad,” Boswell wrote.
“It ruins everything. There is no way to fix the damage. And that scar across a sport’s visage is permanent, as with the World Series 101 years ago that is still known by just two words: Black Sox.”
And the Red Sox are now parting ways with Cora, the manager who led the team to the 2018 title.
Cora piloted the Red Sox to t he 2018 World Series crown in his first season as manager.
In 2017 he was bench coach for the World Series-winning Houston Astros, where according to Manfred’s report he was a ring-leader of the sign-stealing scheme.
Manfred said he was withholding discipline for Cora until after MLB completes an investigation into allegations of illegal sign-stealing during his tenure in Boston.
It is widely expected that Cora will receive a significant punishment.
“Given the findings and the Commissioner’s ruling, we collectively decided that it would not be possible for Alex to effectively lead the club going forward, and we mutually agreed to part ways,” the Red Sox said in a statement issued on behalf of team owner John
Henry, chairman Tom Werner, chief executive Sam Kennedy and Cora.
“We agreed today that parting ways was the best thing for the organizsation,” Cora said in Tuesday’s statement. “I do not want to be a distraction to the Red Sox as they move forward.
“My two years as manager were the best years of my life. It was an honour to manage these teams and help bring a World Series Championship back to Boston.”