As a Yankees fan, I know that just about the last thing anyone wants to hear from me is complaining about how the game is played or the product on the field. Look, I grew up in the peak of George Steinbrenner trying to buy Championships like players were prize horses named Randy Johnson or Jason Giambi. And people really do not want to hear from Yankee players being screwed.

However, as Bob Dylan once sang, the times they are a-changin’.

I’ll ask this again as I’ve asked before: do you realize how big of a mess you have to make to make the Yankees look like victims?

We know what happened in 2017 with the Houston Astros and we assume somethings happened in 2018 and 2019 (of course, legally, they are innocent until proven guilty for ’18 and ’19, but that doesn’t mean we can’t accuse). Rob Manfred, who has SOMEHOW made Roger Freakin Goodell look like Happy Chandler and Pete Rozelle in one week, just by simply messing up the cheating scandal entirely. Roger Goodell, who has denied CTE in the past and made a deal out of Deflategate looks like Adam Silver after dealing with Donald Sterling. It’s that awful.

Every player who isn’t a Houston Astro has killed the Astros organization to oblivion. Deservedly so. Their peers, who are among the best of the best in professional baseball, cheated the game in the year they won the championship.

Last week, the Astros held a press conference led by Jim Crane, owner of the Astros, Alex Bregman, and Jose Altuve. Dusty Baker was there too, which, cool. Anyway, the aforementioned players named Bregman and Altuve spoke for less than 90 seconds and Jim Crane said it didn’t affect the game then, less than a minute later, said it didn’t. Thanks, old billionaire.

Which brings me back to baseball players killing the Astros. These aren’t the days of Reggie Jackson or Bill Lee, guys who weren’t afraid to speak out loud or be weird. Hell, there’s not even a Manny Ramirez in the game. Baseball players are now modeled after the vanilla styling made famous by Derek Jeter. Yasiel Puig and Trevor Bauer may be the only exception to the this (Bregman was here too, but I’m sure we won’t hear much from him anymore). That’s saying a lot without saying anything at all. So when guys open their mouths and show a little character, it’s shocking.

Cody Bellinger, reigning NL MVP and participant of the 2017 World Series, stated that Altuve robbed Aaron Judge of an MVP and that the Dodgers felt robbed of the World Series. Yu Darvish, who fell victim to the Astros at Minute Maid, said the title should be vanquished. Mike Trout *coughs* MIKE TROUT, the best baseball player in the world, expressed his disappointment in “those guys.” Judge, who finished second in the MVP race to Altuve said their championship wasn’t earned.

One thing is for sure, though, the Yankees have certainly made friends along this journey.

MLB, which has acted like Communist China by doing their best rendition of “this never happened,” decided to air Bull Durham during Rob Manfred’s press conference regarding the scandal the other night. Because a movie starring Susan Sarandon from the 1980’s is surely more important than the biggest scandal the sport has faced since the Black Sox scandal 100 years ago.

While a lot of fans and players have called for the 2017 World Series to be vacated, Manfred said taking a piece of metal is futile, which CAN YOU IMAGINE IF ROGER GOODELL SAID THIS?!

Ultimately, the title should be vacated and I’m excited to see Astros players get head hunted all year so, I’ll leave with this quote from respected baseball guy Nick Markakis of the Atlanta Braves when he said, “What they did was bullshit…they deserve a beating.” Yes, they do Nick.