Recent accusations have been made, accusing the Astros of cheating in various ways to see what opposing pitchers were throwing, and to help them gain a better competitive advantage in games. Proof has been shown to the MLB that hidden cameras were put in place in the Astros’ stadium walls, and many unorthodox patterns such as banging on trash cans and wearing buzzers were used to help players gain an advantage. The accusations were originally brought up by former Astro pitcher Mike Fiers, who pitched for the team at the height of their supposed cheating rampage, explaining that the team was not playing baseball the right way and were cutting corners to win games. The MLB launched a huge investigation through many months, and proved the Astros’ guiltiness by laying down some of the most extreme penalties that any team has ever gotten. These penalties were

• Manager AJ Hinch and GM Jeff Luhnow were given a year-long suspension (both were later fired by the team)
• Former Assistant GM Brandon Taubman was suspended for a year
• The team forfeited 1st and 2nd round draft picks for the next two drafts
• Fined $5 million dollars (the most amount anybody can be fined under the CBA contract)
• Carlos Beltran, a player named in the scandal and newly hired manager of the New York Mets stepped down and may face punishment

The buzz around the team’s cheating became endless, various memes were created, people could not stop talking about it. Many also felt that their championship in 2017 should be taken away from the team, as they won the World Series during the peak of their cheating. While the MLB did not take this away, the punishments laid down were still quite significant. The Astros will forever go down as one of the most tainted MLB organizations because of their acts, and all of us will never know how the MLB would be different if this all did not occur.