January 22nd, 2020 at 9:00 am 
by Ron Cervenka It is now a proven fact that the Houston Astros cheated in the 2017 World Series and the Boston Red Sox in 2018. The victim of both was, of course, the Los Angeles Dodgers, who ‘lost’ those series in seven games and five games respectively.
Although Major League Baseball – i.e., MLB commissioner Rob Manfred – has already meted out what he believes are the appropriate punishments and sanctions, he failed miserably at issuing the one punishment that would reduce – if only slightly – the anger of not only Dodger fans, but of baseball fans around the globe. That appropriate punishment would, of course, be to strip both franchises of their tainted World Series titles and trophies and put an indelible asterisk next to their names in the MLB record books forever.
Once it was officially confirmed by MLB that the Astros and Red Sox had, in fact, engaged in sign-stealing on baseball’s grandest stage, the Los Angeles City Council issued and subsequently approved a local referendum to award both World Series trophies to the second place (albeit by way of cheating) Dodgers. In the simplest and politest of terms, this is utter nonsense.
Apparently, by their self-motivated ego stroking, the fifteen-member LA City Council actually believes that with their unanimous vote on this ridiculous referendum, all will be forgiven and any ill will against the two sleaziest teams in professional sports forgotten. Here again, utter nonsense.
To put it crudely, unless and until Rob Manfred grows a set and does the right thing, this matter will never go away, not ever. And if he does not, this situation in and of itself will be his legacy as baseball’s 10th commissioner.
…and that is not nonsense.
Play Ball!
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Posted in 
I’d rather see things stay as they are. There’s a very good chance that the Dodgers would’ve had a better chance to win, if it weren’t for the sign stealing, than for them to have the championships handed to them outright. I agree I wouldn’t have them just handed to the team.
An additional word for the LA City Council action — embarrassing. Vacating the 2017 (2018 TBD) World Series title(s) is the right thing to do for the sport and the fans (and I called for early on), but I now think that would likely result in significant problems within organized gambling (not to mention illegal gambling). In 2018 MLB signed with MGM Resorts International to make it the official gaming and entertainment partner. As I have previously written, I would not be surprised if Manfred was lobbied by MGM, and perhaps other gambling establishments to stay away from vacating titles, or even worse bestowing a championship on another team.
If the Dodgers ever left Hollyweird and California, I’d be fine with the state being annexed by Mexico.
MLB was intent on getting a quick answer as to whether or not there was sign stealing and Manfred wanted to impose discipline before ST. To do so he had to grant immunity to players knowing they would “lawyer up” and the voluntariness of their statements would be litigated for many years effectively stalling the investigation.
Manfred didn’t really want to the bottom of the situation or else he would have instructed his investigators to examine the who, what, where and how aspects of the investigation which should be central to any investigation. Manfred never had the “pair” to take on the players and didn’t want the investigation to delve any further into whether or Jim Crane knew anything about cheating scandal since he works for the owners.
The fine imposed on the Astros was an absolute joke. The WS championship should have been vacated, not awarded to the Dodgers but the record books should have been re-written noting there was no WS champion in 2017 and should have prevented the Astros from flying the WS flag, take away the rings, prohibiting the Astros from ever capitalizing on being a WS champ etc.
My take – Manfred could have conducted the investigation without granting players immunity but he did not want to risk having to discipline stars like Altuve, Bregman, Springer, Correa, Verlander, etc. Fans do not go to games to see general managers and managers, they are expendable — the players make money for MLB and Manfred was not going to suspend any players and run the risk of setting a precedent should other teams / players be found cheating in this manner. If Fiers had not gone public I think MLB would have handled this cheating scandal quietly — Luhnow, Hinch, Cora, and Beltran would all still have their jobs.