Admist the Astros cheating scandal that allegedly cost the Yankees their 2017 and 2019 series, NBA star LeBron James is the latest to join the list of athletes to call out Major Basketball League (MLB) Commisioner Rob Manfred on the way he is handling the controversy, telling him to "fix this."
The Los Angeles Lakers superstar took it to Twitter to express his frustrations and said that even if he does not play baseball, he is in sports and if he ever knew that he was cheated, he would be furious. He then proceeded to ask the baseball commissioner to listen to his players on how they are disgusted and hurt about the scandal.
James' Twitter tirade came after Mike Trout of the Los Angeles Angels criticized Manfred for not punishing the players involved in the cheating scandal. Trout referred to the situation as a sad day for baseball.
The Houston Astros were caught on the sign-stealing scandal after it was discovered that they created a system to communicate and decode the opposing team's pitching signs. Although sign stealing has been a commonplace in the MLB for a long time, league rules have prohibited the usage of electronic devices to do such thing.
While it is prohibited, the Astros was caught using a live game of the camera from the center field to decode the signal sequences and then communicated these to the hitters in field.
In January, the MLB investigated and released a report detailing the sign-stealing scheme after sports news website The Athletic, made a story about the cheating allegations.
After this, Manfred proceeded to suspend A.J. Hinch, manager of the Astors and Jeff Luhnow, the team's general manager. Both were also fired by the team's owner Jim Crane right after. The league also forfeited the team's first and second-round draft selections for the 2020 and 2021 seasons and pay a fine of $5 million.
Alex Cora resigned from his job as manager of the Boston Red Sox who he led to a World Series Title in 2018, after being a key figure in the scandal. Also, Carlos Beltran, former player of the Astros, stepped down from being the manager of the New York Mets after his name got involved in the controversy.
However, the outburst from sports enthusiasts and athletes came after none of the players received any disciplinary action from the league despite their participation in the cheating. The league has also expressed no plans of stripping off the Astros of the 2017 World Series Title.
Although the team has already repeatedly apologized for the scandals and the players have expressed how remorseful they are, the baseball community along with current and former baseball players have not taken their apologies kindly.
Proof to this is the lawsuit the relief pitcher Mike Bolsinger filed claiming that the Astros cost him his career after it was cut short in August 2017, after he gave up four runs in a game against the Astros.
Aside from this the legislature has also expressed their disappointment on the league's inaction, which led James Skoufis, Chairman of the Senate Investigations and Government Operations panel drafted a resolution urging Commissioner Manfred to take action and investigate whether the cheating indeed cost the NY Yankees their 2017 and 2019 series.
