I get all that. But they've been caught, and punished. Maybe not to our satisfaction, but the investigation's been done. I wanted MLB or the investigation to reveal specifics. Like which games, or which plays, particularly in regards to the 2017 postseason, were the result of illegally stolen signs. But we didn't get that.
Well they wanted it to just go away, obviously. If they'd revealed, for example, that they were doing it at every home game during the playoffs, it looks pretty bad. But let's be real here, if they'd even done it for only, say, game 3 of the WS and not games 4 or 5 (even though it would be crazy to believe they would only cheat once), that game had a trickle down effect on the rest of the series in terms of bullpen use alone. Even if they didn't cheat in game 5 directly, I'd say game 5 was affected by game 3.
I think if the full scale of it had been revealed they'd have been in a position where players would have had to receive massive bans, and the WS win vacated. I don't think they wanted to go to that point. They figured they could scapegoat an already-retired player, a former bench coach, fire the GM and manager, and that'd be the end of that. And perhaps if the owner and the remaining players had played it humble and taken their lumps this year they'd be okay. But they've been so completely arrogant about it all, apologizing and then almost immediately nullifying those apologies with subsequent statements to try and justify their 2017 accomplishments, that even some pundits who thought the punishment was sufficient at first are now turning on them.
The Astros think they can control this narrative, and maybe among Astros diehards they can ... but there's 29 other teams and fanbases who are not going to let this go. Why should they? The Astros give a halfhearted apology, and now are acting like they did nothing wrong and that THEY'RE the real victims now.
