I didn’t want to admit it. I didn’t want to give the credit where it’s due. However, after the results of the 2022 World Series and what this team has done for the past five years since they got caught with their pants down, I have no choice but to accept it. The Houston Astros are not only the real deal but they are a legit powerhouse, a dynasty in the making, and easily the best and most well ran team in Major League Baseball right now.
What the Astros did in the past is now irrelevant. By winning this year’s World Series along with their other deep playoff runs since 2017, they have proven they have the talent and resources to not only win it all fair and square but have the talent and resources to do that over and over again for a really long time.
In case there is someone out there who’s unaware, the 2017 Houston Astros where involved with one of the biggest cheating scandals in baseball history. During home games in the regular season and the postseason, the team used hidden cameras to steal signs from opposing pitchers so they would get a good idea of what type of pitch was going to be thrown at them during each at bat. They would have someone in the clubhouse take a good look at the footage that was being shown through the cameras and would bang on trash cans as a way to alert the hitters of what type of pitch was coming.
Here’s a video right here to show you proof of that.
With a scandal this big and done during meaningful playoff games, let alone the World Series, you would think that the MLB would take absolute brutal actions against the Astro players for their actions in the 2017 season. Believe it or not, not much was done to discipline the players for it.
While there was certainly some fines, suspensions and firings from management and the higher ups, there was hardly any consequences that the players themselves had to face for cheating. Their 2017 title wasn’t removed, their ring was still theirs to keep, the players themselves didn’t really show any remorse, regret, or felt like they did anything inherently wrong, and they were still able to compete and play baseball the following years like the whole thing never happened.
This was outrageous! This was the biggest cheating scandal that happened to the sports since steroids was a thing and MLB thought it was best to sweep the whole thing under the rug like it was never a thing. This lead to the mindset of many people that the Astro were frauds and couldn’t win the whole thing with no cheating involved. There was no way they could be competitive in any way without hidden cameras and steal signs, right? Right?! As it turns out, we call couldn’t be anything but wrong.
While I’m surely not the first person to make this comparison but I can’t help but compare the Houston Astros these past six years to that of the New England Patriots in the 2000s and onwards with their dynasty. Similar to the Astros in 2017, the Patriots had their own cheating allegation against them when they won the franchise’s first ever championship. The allegation in this instance was that the Patriots taped the St. Louis Rams during their daily routines a day before the Super Bowl to get an idea of what their plan of attacks was on their offensive and defensive lines. Although this allegation was never 100% proven and even The Boston Hearld that reported that eventually retracted it, that was the narrative of the aftermath of Super Bowl XXXVI. The Patriots were frauds and couldn’t win it all without needing to copy off the other student’s answers. There was no way they were a legit powerhouse or a dynasty in the making, right? Right?!
Yep, you’d be wrong again!
Even if the Patriots did actually cheat during that Super Bowl with the St. Louis Rams, they proven themselves to be FAR from frauds with what they were able to accomplish for nearly the past two decades.
Since that Super Bowl against the Rams, the Patriots went on to go to eight more Super Bowls and win five of them (one of them against the Rams as well). Lead by the greatest quarterback of all time in Tom Brady and arguably the greatest head coach of all time in Bill Belichick, the Patriots proved their first championship wasn’t no fluke whatsoever and just continued to build upon one impressive, amazing dynasty. An era in which the New England Patriots where basically the Galactic Empire of National Football, with no one standing in their way and always spreading great fear and destruction to those who oppose him. Although that era of dominance might be gone now since Brady left New England, no doubt it’s one of, if not the greatest dynasty in sports history and one that will never be forgotten.
Unless you are a Saint Louisian or a Missouri native like me, you probably have long forgot about the cheating accusation that took place during the Super Bowl played in February 2002. And why is it that many have long forgot about that? Probably because the Patriots have multiple other championships won under the belt since then that they could easily sweep that one they may have been found guilty of for cheating completely under the rug. New England was able to prove many times over of all the hard work, blood, sweat, and tears they take to win it all multiple times by continuing to playing the game of the football the way it’s suppose to be played. After this World Series victory from the Astros, I see them going down a similar path as the Patriots are, although perhaps not quite as dominant.
Going back to the Astros, you might wonder how exactly Houston responded after winning their first World Series in franchise history in 2017 that in the eyes of many was tainted after it got revealed what happen behind the scenes two years later. Well, about the most meaningful and impressive way imaginable.
Since 2017, the Astros have made it to the American League Championships series five straight times, made it to World Series three times, and winning one World Series fair and square against the Phillies in 2022. I’m sorry but you don’t go to the World Series four time in six years and make it to at least the ALCS six years in a row solely by cheating. It take high energy and talent from everyone involved with team, from the players to the coaches to the mangers to the front office to the scouting department and to player evaluation. Cheating can only get you so far before it stops working for you but by constantly building around an incredible foundation using legal resources, it will eventually turn you into something special and that is exactly what the Houston Astros have become.
As much as fans and media despise how the Astro players themselves have responded to the cheating scandal in 2017 off the field, you can’t help but respect how they have handled in ON the field.
Despite being booed everywhere else they go, despite being taunted by opposing fans and players constantly, and despite likely receiving death threats, they have responded by playing some damn great baseball these past few years. Despite the shortening 2020 season where the Astros finished under .500 (even though they came one win away from the World Series because of expanded playoffs), they have shown why they are elite as they have been with the talent they have now in the present and the talent they have for the future.
The main core pieces of that 2017 team with Jose Altuve, Alex Bregman, Justin Verlander, Yuli Gurriel, and Lance McCullers Jr. was still present and accounted for and was still (mostly) affective in their championship run. Even the cores pieces from 2017 to 2021 that left such as Gerrit Cole, George Springer, Zack Grienke, and Carlos Correa have been replaced nicely with the likes of Framber Valdez, Chas McCormick, Yordan Alvarez, and the ALCS & World Series MVP in Jeremy Pena. It doesn’t matter who they walk because they will always have someone coming up from the farm that can easily fit in nicely with everyone else. That shows you the power of having an elite farm system, a scouting department that knows how to draft talent, and a front office that knows exactly what players to keep in the long run and when to let certain players go. It’s not cheating that has led the Astros to their success, it’s just being really damn good at everything they do in baseball.
If you are reading through this, you might get the assumption that I’m saying that you must like and respect the Houston Astros now since they won a legit World Series and have to forget everything that happened in 2017 because of that but that not what I’m saying at all. What I’m trying to get across is it’s that the Houston Astros are a real, legit juggernaut that will continue to be a problem for other teams for years to come despite what happened in 2017. Just like how the Patriots responded after being accused of cheating with their first championship, the Astros have responded as good as they possibly could have with no signs of slowing down anytime soon. It might take a few more championships for the Astros to accomplish the same wonder as the Patriots did in their near two decade long dynasty run but I do get the feeling that once the Astros are no longer that dominant, the 2017 cheating scandal will be as long forgotten in the minds of sports fans as what the Patriots was in 2000, aside from sports fans from Missouri, New York, and California of course.
Even so, the Houston Astros are the World Series champions of 2022. Congrats to that group and especially congrats to manger Dusty Baker for his first ever ring as a manger!
Just like the New England Patriots, I might hate you guys and will never forgive you what you did in the past but you have gained my respect and proved you are the real deal. You’ve earned this World Series title!
Also, a big shoutout to Trey Mancini, a survivor of cancer for getting a ring as well!
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