Hammer comes down on arrogant Astros
Worst cheaters since 1919 hammered; expect similar penalties for Red Sox
There has been an arrogance about the Houston Astros, a sense they felt that they were smarter than everyone else, stronger than everyone, bolder than everyone. On Monday, that wall of pomposity came tumbling down.
Winners of 100-plus games for three straight seasons, and winners of the 2017 World Series, all of their accomplishments are now tainted by a Major League Baseball investigation that has led to the one-year suspension of general manager Jeff Luhnow, one of baseball’s least liked and most cutthroat executives, and the one-year suspension of manager A.J. Hinch, the well-regarded bench boss.
Not long after the suspensions were announced, along with the loss of draft picks and an enormous fine of $5 million, the owner of the Astros, Jim Crane, took to the microphone to announce that he wanted no part of either Luhnow or Hinch anymore. He fired both of them. He wanted nothing to do with the GM who built his championship team with a “win-at-allcost” attitude. And he wanted to distance himself from Hinch, who comes away here more guilty by association and inaction than anything else, for failing to put an end to a computerized sign-stealing operation that has cost him his employment and injured his reputation.
Rob Manfred, the previously look-the-other-way commissioner, shed his reputation in one stunning afternoon on the national stage. He hammered the Astros in every way but one. He suspended the GM and the manager. He took the lifeblood first- and second-round draft picks away for the next two years. He made the owner pay.
He took everything away but the World Series win. And in fairness, he wouldn’t have been wrong doing that either.
This is only the first of two major investigations into sign stealing. The second involves the Boston Red Sox and their 2018 World Series championship season. Alex Cora was the bench coach for Hinch in 2017, the manager in Boston in 2018. He was, according to the MLB report, intimately involved in the technological warfare the Astros employed in 2017. No question he’ll be suspended, maybe even longer than Luhnow and Hinch, when the report on the Red Sox is completed.
And now, for public consumption, the 2017 and 2018 World Series champions are in doubt; without an asterisk, but clearly dubious champions.
The stench of that Astros championship season remains and the statistics are in a way damning. The sign-stealing technology was set up for home games. They didn’t have the same ability on the road.
In their World Series-winning season, Houston went 8-1 at home in the playoffs, 3-6 on the road. They hit 18 home runs at home, half that many away. They scored 5.7 runs per game at home during the post-season, just three runs on the road.
That, by itself, leaves enough reason for suspicion about how the technology contributed to the team’s success. Hinch, who admitted he was aware of the sign-stealing but didn’t condone it, wasn’t strong enough or bold enough to shut the cameras down. Winning was intoxicating. The culture was overwhelming.
The Astros were fostering the mentality that winning was all that mattered — and it didn’t matter how. And at the same time sneering at the rest of baseball for not being as clever as they were.
There has never been anything like this in baseball since the Black Sox scandal of 1919, when Chicago apparently threw the World Series. You’ve probably seen the movie Eight Men Out, and if you haven’t, you should.
That incident was 101 years ago. To put this into some kind of context, there’s hasn’t been anything this scandalous in baseball since then.
Pete Rose was suspended for life as a manager for gambling on baseball. Leo Durocher was once suspended for hanging with nefarious characters. The suspensions of Luhnow and Hinch, followed by the immediate dismissal, are precedent-setting and shocking today, shocking tomorrow, shocking next month.
This is new-wave baseball doing new-wave things. The Astros used technology to foster sign stealing. Essentially, it was computer-enhanced cheating. The Astros have long been an analytics darling: This was taking statistical manipulation to a whole new level. And they did it because they believed they could get away with it.
The deterrent is now there for all of baseball. And it will be reiterated when Cora is suspended, quite likely for a longer term than Luhnow or Hinch received. His fingerprints are on both teams.
Also involved is rookie Mets manager Carlos Beltran, who was playing for the Astros in 2017. There are more cards to be played here by Manfred, more championships to question.
Luhnow pleaded ignorant during his conversations with MLB. It’s what you would expect from someone with his mentality. He’s like the man who arranges the hit but doesn’t pull the trigger. He’s still guilty. And in this case, Luhnow is probably done with baseball — and baseball is probably done with him.
“I have higher standards for the city and the franchise,” said Crane, the Astros owner, who immediately distanced himself from his GM and manager. “We won’t have this happen again on my watch.”
Now baseball, and Boston, waits now for the next shoe to drop. It won’t be long. It will be harsh.
I have higher standards for the city and the franchise. We won’t have this happen again on my watch.