TAMPA, Fla. _ At first, the idea of vacating a title in Major League Baseball seemed ludicrous, too outlandish to be even seriously mentioned, never mind considered in the wake of the Astros' sign-stealing scandal.
I always thought it silly when the NCAA, known for its ham-handed distribution of justice, chose to strip the USC football program of its 2004 national crown (along with Reggie Bush's Heisman trophy) or take back the 1996 Final Four appearance from the UMass men's basketball team.
My main issue? What was everyone supposed to do, just pretend those things never happened? They witnessed those victories, watched those title games, bought the memorabilia, wear the shirts. I just chalked it up to the NCAA's feelings of omnipotence, always so confident in the ability to bend reality to suit their purposes.
MLB was above that, right? Surely commissioner Rob Manfred could come up with more sensible, stringent penalties that suitably hurt the Astros _ harsh discipline that would not only act as a deterrent, but satisfy those who were most wounded by their rule-breaking behavior.
We know now that's not what happened. Far from it. And after hearing so many players throughout the league publicly call for the Astros to be stripped of their 2017 World Series title, that's not such a crazy concept anymore. Just the opposite. It's a punishment that best fits the crime. And who better to listen to on the meaning of that championship than the very players that work so hard for it.
Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton _ two of the most high-profiles names in the sport _ became the latest to suggest that taking the '17 trophy back from the Astros wasn't as trite as the "piece of metal" reference Manfred later had to apologize for. Neither Yankee is known for making inflammatory comments, but in this case, they didn't pull any punches.
"Yeah, (MLB) did their investigation and it was(clear)-cut they cheated that year, which means it should be taken away," Stanton said. "If you cheat in another way (PEDs) during the season you can't even be in the playoffs. It's pretty much the same difference."
Judge agreed with Yu Darvish's comparison with the Olympics, to the effect that gold medals are stripped when an athlete is found to have cheated. He also went a step further by losing all respect for the Astros, and feeling that the accomplishment was basically worthless now.
"Yeah, I just don't think it holds any value with me," Judge said. "You cheated and _ you didn't earn it. It wasn't earned the way of playing the game right and fighting to the end. The biggest thing about competition is laying it all out on the line, and whoever's the better player, better person, comes out on top. You just lay it out there. And to know that another team had an advantage that's nothing that you can really guard against _ I just don't feel like that's earned."
When the usually-reserved Mike Trout, universally regarded as baseball's best player, lends his voice to the chorus railing against Manfred's disciplinary measures, that gets your attention. And Justin Turner, perhaps the most militant of this bunch, didn't have a problem attaching his name to what everybody is thinking.
"As all these guys from over there are coming back and apologizing and trying to make amends for it, it's pretty evident to me that it wasn't earned," Turner told reporters at Dodgers camp in Glendale, Ariz., "and it's not something that a banner should be hung at their stadium, a trophy should be put up.
"I think what should've happened is the commissioner vacated their championship and then we move forward. Then we don't have to worry about guys getting hit, we don't have to worry about anything. It's taken care of."
If nothing else, vacating the Astros' title would have been a much simpler solution. We understand the nearly impossible nature of trying to penalize the players themselves. Manfred said he needed to grant players immunity to get their cooperation and that was essential to the investigation. Also, if he didn't, any attempt by the commissioner to punish those players would have likely been easily stomped on by the union's lawyers.
Even the Astros' fellow union members on opposing teams can appreciate that logic. But when All-Stars like Judge or Stanton or Turner talk about punishing the Astros' players, they mostly mean the principle of stripping the title, because they know how much more that would hurt than fines or even suspensions.
I asked Manfred last Sunday at the Braves' new spring-training site (where) if he considered taking the title away from the Astros. The commissioner replied by suggesting that the idea was discussed at length _ he referred to a "high" number of "minutes" _ but conceded that it was a place he wasn't willing to go.
Manfred began his explanation by citing a lack of precedent for taking away a championship, but the commissioner has showed no reluctance to change the game in plenty of other ground-breaking ways, such as establishing new rules with more in the pipeline. He also figured the facts, once publicly displayed, would be enough to sufficiently shame the Astros in the court of public opinion, even without an asterisk or yanking the trophy away from Houston. That's debatable, and the players sound like they disagree.
His last point probably made the most sense, and that was expressing a fear of diving headfirst into a rabbit hole that baseball might never emerge from. If Manfred stripped the Astros of their title, would there be an outcry for more championships to be overturned on the basis of cheating, through PEDs or other means?
"Once you go down that road as for changing the result on the field, I just don't know where you stop," Manfred said.
Maybe so. And with Manfred yet to release his verdict on the investigation into the '18 Red Sox _ the announcement is expected this coming week _ it's possible that vacating the Astros' title would have established the precedent to confiscate the latest trophy from Fenway Park as well.
As if this situation already wasn't messy enough, stripping two champions of their titles in a three-year span would be unthinkable for Manfred. But you also could argue such action as the right thing to do given the unprecedented scope of these crimes. While it's true that cheating has always been a part of this sport, from swiping signs with telescopes to smearing goo on baseballs to non-kosher injectables, none of these past illegal practices caused the PR mushroom cloud that the Astros' hi-tech espionage did this winter (thanks in part to whistle-blower Mike Fiers).
Manfred is fighting a large-scale unconventional battle right now, one where he shouldn't hide behind precedents. Vacating titles is not erasing history, or pretending it didn't happen, as some would have you believe _ or as I once did. Stripping the Astros of the 2017 championship would merely be taking away a trophy that wasn't earned, as Judge plainly stated.
The best authority on this subject _ the players themselves _ don't see this as a very complicated issue. It's too late for Manfred to go back on this now, but he should take this opportunity to listen to them. And remember what they said for the next time.
