January 26th, 2020 at 11:00 am 
by Ron Cervenka Love him or hate him, LA Times writer Bill Plaschke is very good at what he does. Referred to by many as an antagonist, the 61-year-old / 33-year veteran LA Times journalist has a remarkable knack for getting to the very heart of all things sports – and otherwise – related. As such, when he arrived at the behind-the-scenes media area at Dodger Stadium for the Dodgers annual FanFest event on Saturday morning, every media type in attendance knew, absolutely knew what was going to happen.
And it did.
After the initial and typical rah-rah FanFest questions to Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, the first of what would be 19 interviews on the day and from the back of the pack of the large gathering of media types, Plaschke, as he so often does, went right for the throat and asked the questions that no other reporter, writer, TV sportscaster, blogger or podcaster dare ask but very much wanted to:
“Dave, How angry are you about the sign-stealing scandal?”
Boom.
“First off, what went down as far as what the commissioner decided to do as far as penalties, we completely support it,” Roberts began. “But as far as part of direct impact of ’17, of the World Series, it’s frustrating, it’s really frustrating.
“I think that this could be a conversation that could go on for quite some time, but I think my demeanor, it’s really frustrating,” Roberts elaborated. “You look at what coulda happened, and I can’t go too much into it, but speaking for the players, the fans, it was quite a season, what coulda been different. But really, for me, it kinda goes out to some unfair criticism that guys like Clayton [Kershaw] took, Yu [Darvish], Kenley [Jansen], and I guess frustrating is probably the floor of my emotions, but that’s kinda where I’m at.”
Although none of the gathered media knew it at the time, that single word – frustrating – would be used by every Dodger player interviewed following the Dodgers skipper … to the man.
But whereas Roberts couldn’t (or wouldn’t) “go too much into it,” his players most certainly did. In fact, they were chomping at the bit to do so. (Well played, Bill; again).
“They cheated. They got away with it. They got a ring out of it,” said Dodgers utility infielder/outfielder Kiké Hernandez, without a glint of hesitation or concern for the so-called gag order imposed by MLB commissioner Rob Manfred shortly after the Houston Astros sign-stealing investigation began.
Dodgers veteran third baseman Justin Turner was equally direct when asked of the Astros cheating scandal by Plaschke.
“I’m not 100 percent sure if they should be called champions for the rest of their lives,” Turner said. “We know how hard it is to win a championship. It’s something you definitely have to earn, and the evidence in the commissioner’s report makes it hard to believe it was earned.
“They found enough evidence to support three managers losing their jobs and two general managers, so obviously there was something there,” he added.
Turner was also asked if he felt that the apology issued a day earlier by Astros left-hander Dallas Keuchel was sufficient and/or heartfelt enough to appease him and his teammates.
“Well, Dallas Keuchel didn’t hit, so I don’t really know why he was the one apologizing,” the Dodgers unofficial team captain answered. “He’s the first one that’s mentioned anything like that, so, I guess good for him.”
(Photo credit – Mark J. Terrill)
But the strongest and most in-depth comment regarding the sign-stealing scandal came from perhaps the most unlikely but most articulate player on the team – Dodgers right-hander Ross Stripling.
“Yeah, here we go,” Stripling began with a chuckle after Plaschke asked him how mad he was at the sign-stealing scandal. “In 2017, we knew that there was stuff going on, you could just tell. Like, they just seemed to be a step ahead of us in multiple situations, certain at-bats you can really look at and be like Brandon Morrow hasn’t gotten touched all postseason, now all of a sudden he’s grinding through innings like we haven’t seen.
“So, in 2017 we kind of knew it and got over it, and then it kind of comes out like it did a few months ago and all a sudden we’re reliving it, so we’re angry,” the Bluebell, PA native and former Texas A&M Aggie added. “Obviously you don’t get a punishment like that if things weren’t found out, so it’s pretty clear that cheating happened, they got the max penalty, they lost draft picks, guys lost their jobs and more looks like it’s coming. So, I think if you were going to ask us, I think we would say we’re happy people got punished for doing what they did, and also we were over it two years ago and now it’s time to move onto 2020.”
(Video capture courtesy of Dodger Blue 1958)
When asked if he thought that the 2017 World Series championship should be vacated, Stripling gave the answer that every Dodger and Dodger fan on the planet would give.
“Well, what I can say is that we don’t want it,” Stripling answered without hesitation. “We don’t want rings on our fingers, we don’t want a trophy in our trophy case, that’s not the way we want to win a championship. As far as vacating the championship, I guess it already has an asterisk next to it, right? There’s only two of those forever in the history of baseball, so it’s pretty obvious what that means.
“As far as vacating it, I don’t necessarily know, man, I’ll kind of stay in the middle on that one,” he continued. “I don’t really care one way or the other, as long as they don’t pick it up and give it to us. That’s not how we want it.”
And then things really got good.
Stripling was asked what it’s been like living in the Houston area and having friends closely associated with the Astros. His answer put the entire matter into proper perspective.
“It’s been tough, man. At the end of the day, I have a lot of friends – people that know baseball but don’t really know baseball and don’t understand – and would say things kind of along the lines of ‘Well, they still have to hit the ball’ and that kind of stuff,'” Stripling said. “And I would kind of like say ‘Dude, it’s like being in football and knowing the play call ahead of time, it altered history and it alters every game that they played in and every outcome. And now that the punishment came out, I was kind of happy to go back to those people and go like ‘Hey, now do you kinda see what’s going on?’ So being in Houston was tough. You know, I definitely probably talked about it twice as much as anyone else besides maybe you guys.”
Plaschke then asked the (multi) million-dollar question as only Bill Plaschke could: “How much of an advantage was it to give the hitter [knowing what pitch was coming]?
“Man, these guys get paid millions and millions of dollars to do it without having a clue of what’s coming, and they do it with us as pitchers getting paid a lot of money to be as deceptive as we possibly can. That is my job. My job is to keep you off balance and that’s the only reason I’m out there,” said Stripling. “I’m out there to be prepared, to make it to where you have no idea what’s coming. And now you take that away from me, that’s literally my job and now you’ve taken that away from me. And now you have the best players in the world at what they do knowing exactly what’s coming ahead of time and possibly knowing what side of the plate it’s coming, and all sorts of things, and it is absolutely game-changing. I don’t know how else to say it.
“I wish I had a better analogy. I just kept using the one that if you told a middle linebacker what just went into Tom Brady’s headset and he turns around and he tells the team ‘Hey, they’re running it to the left side,’ my guess is that guy’s not even going to get to the line of scrimmage, right? I mean, that’s kind of the analogy I keep using,” Stripling explained.
Like the others, all of them, Stripling repeatedly used the word ‘frustrating.’
Deferring back to Justin Turner, he absolutely positively summed it up best:
“The narrative is that we haven’t won a championship in 33 years, and that obviously wouldn’t be the case if things were different.”
Obviously.
Play Ball!
* * * * * *
Posted in 
Bravo!
Ross Stripling: “I guess it already has an asterisk next to it, right?”
Wrong, and what if it does? MLB so far has ruled it’s OK to cheat, you get caught and some token heads will roll, but you get to keep the championship. Totally minimizes the situation, a lot has changed in the 100 years since the Black Sox scandal.
“They cheated. They got away with it. They got a ring out of it,” said Dodgers utility infielder/outfielder Kiké Hernandez, without a glint of hesitation or concern for the so-called gag order imposed by MLB commissioner Rob Manfred.
Yeah, No reason to fear Manfred’s “gag order”. What’s he going to do, suspend players for exercising their 1st amendment rights after letting cheating players skate?
This whole cheating thing stinks to high heaven. It’s not too late to vacate the championships, the Dodger Organization deserves to have the asterisk state “Houston/Boston won more games, but they cheated, therefore there was no championship trophy awarded this year”.
Don’t shoot the messenger … or Ross Stripling.
I’m not shooting the messenger or Ross Stripling.
I know Ross is just trying to be diplomatic (and doesn’t want to sound like a sore loser) through his disappointment. I always say, fans may be majorly disappointed when their teams don’t win it all, but the players and management’s disappointment has to be so much higher. They are so much more vested into the process than us.
It’s also why I am happy and content to go into 2020 with pretty much the same team. These guys might have been sitting with two championship rings right now if they hadn’t been cheated. I’m angry, but I know they must be a whole lot more angry than me.
By the way, Good reporting by the messenger.
Sure, it stinks, but when is it time to let it go? Better yet, why not have fun with it? Attend an AssTros game and bring your own noisemaker.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1219826499852865537
I’ll let it go when justice is done. Justice won’t be done until the championships are vacated!
Ross Stripling said it best, “what if the opposing middle linebacker knew what just went into Tom Brady’s headset and he turns around and he tells the team ‘Hey, they’re running it to the left side,’ my guess is that guy’s not even going to get to the line of scrimmage”.
That right there pretty much sums it up for me. The integrity of the game demands that the cheaters be stripped of the titles. If you want to have fun with noisemakers, etc., maybe professional wrestling would be a better sport for you to follow.
Be upset all you want, as you are and apparently will be. Life goes on for others. BTW…
“The integrity of the game demands…..”
Naive fellow, aren’t you. Perhaps you should follow pro wrestling. 🙂
“Angry, I don’t know if it’s the right word,” Justin Turner said at Dodgers FanFest. “That was a tough World Series to swallow. To lose Game 7, it’s something that I said afterwards, we’ll never get over”. “The tough part is WE know how hard it is to win a World Series”. “With the commissioner’s report, the evidence they had, IT’S HARD TO FEEL LIKE THEY EARNED A RIGHT TO BE CALLED A CHAMPION, which is something I think everyone in this game holds pretty highly: to be called a champion”.
I feel your pain Justin and you’re right; they haven’t earned the right to be called a champion.
Amid newfound speculation Astros players wore buzzers to further be alerted of which pitch was coming, Cody Bellinger voiced his shock and hope rumors were not true: “For the sake of the game I Hope this isn’t true, if true, there needs to be major consequences to the players. That Completely ruins the integrity of the game!!!”
Integrity of the game? Bellinger you’re a “naïve fellow”. Right Uncle Ned? Well I don’t think so!
I feel your anger Cody, you worked hard to compete and you had a right to expect a LEVEL playing field.
VACATE THE CHAMPIONSHIPS
Gosh. You’re really worked up, Box !
Also, you conveniently left out the rest of Justin Turner’s statement. Luckily, I happen to have it:
“ But again, all this talk about that, it’s all in the past.” Turner acknowledged. “There’s nothing we can do to change it. We don’t want a trophy, we don’t want a fake banner hanging in our stadium. We didn’t earn that, we didn’t catch that final out to win a championship, so we don’t want that.
“We just want to move forward in 2020”
Gee, Box. He’s taking good ‘ol Uncle Ned’s advice, isn’t he? 🙂 You should, too,
Yeah, I’m worked up over this scandal.
I’ve always hated seeing people who play by the rules get screwed by cheaters. I’m not like you, going to a game dressed up as a Muppet with a noisemaker won’t be enough for me to forget this.
I conveniently left out the rest of Justin Turner’s statement??
Turner’s statement was over 7 minutes long, so I don’t believe you really gave us the REST of his statement. Here’s a link to his complete statement:
https://youtu.be/4U__m-fE-Cc
After listening to the complete statement, if you still think he’s taking your advice and his pain is gone, the only possible explanation is that you also believe it’s possible to pick up a turd by the clean end.
Of course, this whole thing is about a lot more than just Justin Turner. It also effects all the players who will never have another opportunity to be a champion and countless others. This thing isn’t over by a long shot.
VACATE THE CHAMPIONSHIPS
What Rob Manfred fails to realize (although deep down I’m sure he knows) is that this and this alone will be his legacy when he retires … or gets canned.
I honestly believe that the ONLY reason why he hasn’t vacated the championship from the Astros (and quite possibly the Red Sox in 2018) is the legalized gaming industry (not to mention the illegal one). A great deal of money exchanged hands after both the 2017 and 2018 World Series.
Although (perhaps) no longer run by the Mafia, gambling still carries a big gun – figuratively and literally.
At this point, it most likely will not happen, but if Manfred were to vacate the championship(s), he quite possibly could be remembered as among the best commissioners in MLB history for doing the right thing … but he isn’t even close right now.
You might be right about the gaming Ron, although I don’t know how someone proves they bet on the Dodgers back in 2017 and 2018. I know I bet on them both years at a local casino. My tickets documenting my bets are long gone.
Totally agree with you on Manfred Ron, what the Astros and maybe the Red Sox did, really amounted to a criminal conspiracy to defraud. That demands a STRONG response. We Americans have been conditioned to accept the worst injustices, that needs to change.
Kenesaw Mountain Landis: “Baseball is something more than a game to an American boy; it is his training field for life work. Destroy his faith in its squareness and honesty and you have destroyed something more; you have planted suspicion of all things in his heart.”
“you also believe it’s possible to pick up a turd by the clean end.” You really should take a Xanax and seek perspective.
So what’s your plan for life if the titles are not vacated, Box? If there are no more actions taken?
Serious question.
Serious Answer
My plan for life if the titles are not vacated? Same thing as always. Enjoy it and treasure it. Probably wouldn’t include as much baseball. I’d lose interest. I used to be a big NFL fan, their cheating scandals (with accompanying wrist slaps) and the player kneeling situation caused me to lose interest. I haven’t watched a game in several years, although I’m sure I’ll be at a Super Bowl Party, just won’t watch much of the game and care who wins.
Not to say I wouldn’t always be a Dodgers fan. I follow MLB because I loved playing the game and enjoy watching the very best competing. I respect overachievers with talent, guys who work extremely hard to get to the MLB level. I love seeing their hard work payoff, just like I do watching my own kids succeed through hard work. If MLB won’t provide a level playing field for these guys, it’s just not worth much of my time. I’ve got plenty of other hobbies and I still work. I don’t need MLB.
The more we find out what the Astros and probably Boston did and the injustice heaped on countless people by it, it sickens me. While I COMPLETELY agree with what PaulDodgerFan expressed about leaving it to God to punish (It’s not up to me to punish), I also believe God detests “Acquitting the guilty and condemning the innocent”, so I’ll remain in the “I won’t forget camp”.
VACATE THE CHAMPIONSHIPS
Good to know. It sounded otherwise. I’d like to see the titles vacated as well. Had the Dodgers been the perpetrators, I’d be done, as I’m a lifelong follower. I think the Dodgers might have a ferocity about them in 2020 they would otherwise not have. They now have a “righteous cause”.
What’s done is done. It stinks, especially to us Dodger fans, but you cant change the past. It was a 7 game series and it could’ve went either way. Let’s just hope they prevent this from happening again in the future.
Folks, what done is done and Manfred didn’t make anything better in regards to this scandal by the ‘slap on the wrist’ he gave the Astros, But what really matters is that every Astro player involved will ultimately have to answer to our Creator of Heaven and Earth. I got news for ya, the Lord is not pleased with those who ignore and violate one of God’s 10 Commandments…’Thou shalt not steal’.