By Michael Heilman

In 2017, the Houston Astros had a feel-good story. After Hurricane Harvey struck the Houston area, Houston natives were looking for something uplifting in the healing process. The Astros did the unthinkable by winning the World Series in six games against the Los Angeles Dodgers. The sports world was cheering for them as they helped the people of Houston put the past tragedy of the devastating storm behind them. Like some feel-good stories, this one became too good to be true.

Fast forward three years later, the Houston Astros are now public enemy number one in baseball. This feel-good story quickly turned into a nightmare for the Houston Astros and Major League Baseball. This whole scandal went public when former Astros pitcher Mike Fiers, in an interview with Ken Rosenthal and Evan Drellich, which you can read here (subscription required) along with three other players said the Astros developed a system for home games which was aided by a camera set up in the outfield.

Major League Baseball then launched an investigation into the Astros scandal, and as a result, Manager A.J Hinch and General Manager Jeff Luhnow were suspended for a year. Shortly after the suspensions, Owner Jim Crane fired them one hour after their initial suspensions. The Astros also lost first, and second-round picks for the next two years and fined five-million dollars. Some in MLB thought the punishment was not enough and needed to be more severe.

The Astros had plenty of time to get a statement ready as Spring Training approached, and the day finally came Thursday. The Astros had a chance to bury this but instead created more chaos. Owner Jim Crane held a press conference that didn’t go well at all. After he spoke Astros players, Alex Bregman and Jose Altuve gave statements that combined for an additional ninety-seconds of mumbling. You can watch the press conference below.

Clearly, Jim Crane didn’t help himself nor his team. He failed to admit his wrongdoing, and instead of acknowledging that the team cheated, he said, “I don’t think I should be held accountable.” and “Our opinion is this didn’t impact the game. We had a good team. We won the World Series, and we’ll leave it at that.”

Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred has the authority to either condone these acts or punish what has been proven and admitted to with a ruling is justified and burdensome to those who violated the rules. Punishment requires a stance on what happened to deter others from venturing into the world of cheating. Punishment is done to reestablish morality and restore balance. It takes a wise man to handle a lie. He needs to set a precedent that makes a statement not only to the Astros but to those teams who may look to venture into the world of giving themselves an unfair advantage. Crane mocked Major League Baseball, Rob Manfred, the media, and the fans in his press conference. Is this something that Rob Manfred is going to accept, or will he make a stance?

About a month ago on Opinion Trax, I discussed the idea that Major League Baseball should implement the death penalty, similar to how the NCAA did in the 80s against SMU. Astros owner Jim Crane still has the World Series Trophy, and he will do everything in his power to keep it and let others take the blame. Let him keep the trophy, let him still have the banner out in left field with the World Champs on it. These can be reminders to the Astros that they created the greatest cheating scandal in baseball to date.

So is there any way to make this fair for the Dodgers? No, the chance to win that World Series was taken from them. Those players have retired, been traded to other teams, suffered injuries that have left them unable to perform like they did that year and left wondering if the game was played fairly would they have won? We will never know.

The only way to go about this is to suspend the Houston Astros for the entire season. What they did in 2017 was wrong, and they refuse to admit their wrongdoing. Suspending the team will also suspend the players who participated in this scandal. Those who were not part of the 2017 roster should be allowed to be released and sign with other teams.

This situation is not going anywhere anytime soon. If Major League Baseball wants to punish Jim Crane, then they need to hit him where it hurts. By not taking action and letting the Astros continue to play is just a slap on the wrist for Crane. He doesn’t mind paying fines as long as he keeps the trophy. The dangerous thing about MLB not punishing the Astros opens the door for more teams to cheat.

Realistically, MLB will more than likely hire babysitters to monitor the games and have people positioned at both teams’ dugouts and one additional person to scout the stadium to see if there are any cameras or suspicious objects that might be classified as a competitive advantage.

Fans of baseball, players, owners, sportswriters and sponsors are mad. No one wants to watch, play, own, or support a tainted team. Now it is up to the MLB to do the right thing, take action, make a statement, and clean this mess up.

Now that I’ve gotten my thoughts out, I want to hear about yours. What are your thoughts on Jim Crane and the Houston Astros? Leave a comment below or comment on BGMSportsTrax Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram page.