Instead of this World Series finals being played on the South Side of Chicago as it should be right now... it is being played in two football cities that are both freeway off-ramps looking for a place to go. Chicago would be rocking right now and getting people’s minds off the Bears and Blackhawks misery.
The Astros think they will vindicate themselves to the World and have the last laugh by winning the Series this year. But they are fooling themselves. Everyone knows what they did a few years ago and that they were not punished for it. Winning this series does nothing to change that history.
Tipping-off batters to what pitch is coming is about the worst thing you can do in the game of baseball. It is all about the mind and body one-on-one battle between pitcher and hitter with one trying to fool the other and one trying to outguess the other.
If you know what pitch is coming... this is like a football defense knowing what play the other team is going to run. It is an unfair advantage and takes away the element of outguessing and outperforming your opponent. In short, this destroys the very purpose of playing the game at all.
Maybe the Astros can win a title without the help of a garbage can this year. But whether they do or not... the Astros and garbage cans will be forever linked. In more ways than one.
The Astros have made it to the WS 2 of the past 4 years. I won't even count 2017 but if we do, it's 3 of the last 5. Dodgers also in two of the last four. Both teams with impressive runs. The Giants run in the 2010, 2012, 2014 was more impressive since they won all three of those.
Unless the Astros are caught cheating again, if they end up winning, they would vindicate themselves in my opinion. They were stupid to cheat in 2017 because they already had the best team in the league. What they did in 2017 shouldn't reflect on what they did in 2021. Unless of course, they end up getting caught cheating again.
You can't say the Astros weren't punished. You can say they weren't punished enough. Take that up with the Commissioner. He wasn't going to get any players to agree to talk if they weren't given immunity. After all was said and done, he could have stripped them of the title (that's what I would have done) but didn't for the Astros (or the Red Sox) for whatever reason.
Regarding sign stealing: Are you against a runner on second base helping the batter with the pitch or location? Are you against a team looking for tells on a pitcher, acting on a pitcher if he's tipping his pitches? Because I would bet that 100% of the hitters would love to know what's coming.
Full disclosure: I live in Houston but check my avatar to see what I think about the Astros...