Rob Parker: “It’s official, THE HOUSTON ASTROS ARE THE NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS OF MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL. This is no longer hearsay, now you have former players on the team telling you exactly what was being done. THEY CHEATED and that World Series is marred. This is as bad as it gets and we’re going to call them the Houston ASTERISKS from now on. How we do feel now about guys like Altuve and Bregman? How much help were they getting??” (Full Rant at Bottom of Page)
Listen to Rob Parker discuss the recent allegations levied against the Houston Astros that will certainly be the most captivating story of the baseball offseason, and one that could potentially morph into one of the biggest stories in baseball history.
The Athletic wrote a damning expose (article is behind a paywall) into the American League juggernaut’s use of sign stealing to gain an unlawful competitive advantage on their opponents. Sign stealing is as synonymous with baseball, but the Astros are being accused for far most illicit activities than that include the use of cameras, monitors, and noisemakers.
Former Astros pitcher turned whistleblower Mike Fiers detailed some of the cheating in The Athletic's report.
Fiers, who pitched for the team from 2015-2017, said the team had a TV monitor around the home dugout at Minute Maid Park that had a clear and magnified view of the opponents’ catcher that was shot from a discrete center field camera.
Astros players or staff would then watch the rigged up monitor in the tunnel while Houston players were batting and see where the opposing catcher was setting up and what fingers he was throwing down. They would then relay to the Astros batter up at the plate which pitch was likely coming next by literally banging on trash cans, whistling, or hitting the ceiling of the dugout to signal if it was an off-speed pitch or a fastball.
Rob think the Astros’ 2017 World Series title has to be branded with an asterisk for the rest of time, and he thinks the average baseball fan will never look at the Astros the same way again.
Check out the rant below as Rob compares the Astros to the New England Patriots and their infamous role in SpyGate, where Bill Belichick was fined $500,000 by the NFL and docked their first round draft pick in 2008 for illegally filming the practices of other teams. Rob says he doesn’t know if we can compares the Astros to the 1919 Black Sox at this point in the investigation, and says there is way too much red tape involved in Major League Baseball revoking their World Series title, but says this story could define their franchise for the rest of time.