Baseball has been called America’s favorite pastime for about a century with tens of millions of kids still playing it.
And just as many millions of kids have idolized major league baseball players.We can all remember growing up, going to see the Padres or Dodgers or whatever team we rooted for, trying to get close to players and to get their autographs.
So many kids over all these many decades looking up to those in Major League Baseball.
While those in baseball have not always been good role models, the case of the Houston Astros is certainly not something good for baseball.A scandal that ranks right up there with the Black Sox scandal, ironically in 1919, almost exactly 100 years ago.
Cheating in sports is one of the worst things that can happen in sports, and the Houston team is rightly paying a high price for it.The Astros were caught stealing, literally.An investigation finding the team used an electronic system to steal the signs from the Dodgers in the 2017 World Series.
Major League Baseball’s commissioner this week taking action and suspending the Houston manager and general manager for one full season, both immediately fired by the team’s owner, the team given the maximum fine and stripped of its top draft picks.
Most of all, what they did makes their world championship badly tarnished and their fans badly betrayed.
But it’s a good lesson for all the millions of those kids who play and follow baseball. That cheating is the greatest sin in sports…and that being a real winner in sports…and in life…is about how you play the game.
(Photo credit Getty Images)