World Series: Los Angeles City Council wants Houston Astros, Boston Red Sox stripped of titles
Los Angeles Dodgers were on the receiving end of World Series heartbreak in 2017 and 2018. So, with the winners now embroiled in a cheating scandal, the LA City Council has proposed a unique punishment.
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The Los Angeles City Council called on Major League Baseball to strip the Houston Astros and Boston Red Sox of their scandal-tainted World Series crowns and award the championships to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
In a largely symbolic resolution passed by the LA City Council, members called for the 2017 and 2018 World Series championships to be awarded to the Dodgers, who lost in consecutive years to the Astros and Red Sox.
Baseball has been reeling since MLB commissioner Rob Manfred issued his report into a sophisticated and illegal sign-stealing scheme used by the Astros throughout 2017 and during the World Series.
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Astros manager A.J. Hinch and team chief Jeff Luhnow were both suspended for a year and then sacked by the team following publication of the report.
Boston Red Sox manager Alex Cora, an assistant coach at the Astros in 2017 who helped devise the scheme, was later fired by the club and is also expected to face sanction from Major League Baseball.
“Athletes that don’t cheat want to compete fairly and want to earn their title,” said LA City councillor Gilbert Cedillo, one of the two officials who tabled the resolution.
“What we’re looking at is what the record will reflect, and clearly cheaters should not be rewarded. We don’t want this to become to the new normal.
“I can’t fathom ... winning a title by cheating and then putting it up on the mantle as if it was legitimate.”
Although the MLB has faced widespread calls to strip the Astros of their 2017 title, analysts say any such move is highly unlikely with Manfred unwilling to risk a dispute with the player’s union.
Originally published as World Series: Los Angeles City Council wants Houston Astros, Boston Red Sox stripped of titles