LeBron James Weighs In On Baseball Cheating Scandal, Says He'd Be Irate
LeBron James weighed in on the Houston Astros' cheating scandal on Tuesday, in which they used cameras to steal signs from opposing pitchers and catchers and relayed them to batters.
James sided with the baseball players who have expressed anger over the handling of the controversy and encouraged MLB commissioner Rob Manfred to listen to their wishes.
During the 2017 World Series and again in 2018, the Astros used a video feed from a center field camera to watch catchers and pitchers. They'd then bang on trash cans to tell the hitter what pitch would be coming.
Last month, Manfred suspended Astros' general manager Jeff Luhnow and manager A.J. Hinch for the entire 2020 season. They were then fired by the team.
The Astros were also fined $5 million and stripped of four draft picks. But no players were punished and the team wasn't stripped of their 2017 World Series title, which upset many players.
Angels' Mike Trout told reporters Monday that what transpired is "sad for the baseball."
"I don’t agree with the punishments, the players not getting anything," Trout said. "It was a player-driven thing. It sucks, too, because guys’ careers have been affected. A lot of people lost jobs. It was tough. Me going up to the plate knowing what was coming? It would be fun up there. A lot of guys lost respect for some of the guys.”
Dodgers' Justin Turner, whose team lost to the Astros in the 2017 World Series, told reporters that Manfred's handling of the situation sends a poor message to cheaters and sets a bad precedent. He also called for more transparency with the investigation.
“I don’t think anyone knows the facts,” Turner told reporters. “I think everyone just wants to hear all the facts. And I think that the commissioner didn’t do a good job of revealing all the facts to us. I still think there’s some stuff we don’t know.”
