LeBron James issues furious response to baseball cheating scandal

LeBron James has teed off, venting his fury about a cheating scandal that rocked America and calling for more action to be taken.

LeBron James has called on the MLB to step up.

NBA star LeBron James has lashed out at the Houston Astros cheating scandal that rocked Major League Baseball (MLB) and sports fans across America.

The Astros were found guilty of “sign stealing” during the 2017 season in which they won the World Series, resulting in manager AJ Hinch and general manager Jeff Luhnow being banned for one year by the league and subsequently fired by Houston.

Sign stealing, which occurs when a team decodes and relays the catcher’s signal to the batter, is frowned upon and doing so with the help of electronic equipment makes it illegal. The Astros reportedly had a camera in centre field, fixed on the opposing catcher’s signs, which was connected to a TV monitor in the home dugout before sharing the information by banging on a rubbish bin.

The baseball community has condemned the Astros and while they were punished with a $5 million fine and draft sanctions, they have not been stripped of their 2017 World Series title, secured when they beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 4-1.

As rival players continue to voice their outrage, James joined in with an angry Twitter rant on Wednesday saying he would be furious if he found out a team that took a trophy from him was guilty of cheating.

The four-time NBA MVP echoed calls for harsher punishments as MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred comes under fire for his handling of the situation.

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Listen I know I don’t play baseball but I am in Sports and I know if someone cheated me out of winning the title and I found out about it I would be F*^king irate! I mean like uncontrollable about what I would/could do! Listen here baseball commissioner listen to your.....

— LeBron James (@KingJames) February 18, 2020

players speaking today about how disgusted, mad, hurt, broken, etc etc about this. Literally the ball(⚾️) is in your court(or should I say field) and you need to fix this for the sake of Sports! #JustMyThoughtsComingFromASportsJunkieRegardlessMyOwnSportIPlay

— LeBron James (@KingJames) February 18, 2020

Manfred apologised on Wednesday for what he called a disrespectful reference to the World Series trophy as a “piece of metal”. Even before being asked about it, Manfred said he made a mistake with those comments while trying to deliver a rhetorical point in an interview two days earlier.

“I referred to the World Series trophy in a disrespectful way, and I want to apologise for it,” Manfred said. “There’s no excuse for it ... it was a mistake to say what I said.”

MLB players, already upset with Manfred’s handling of the Astros’ sign stealing scandal and some of his comments in trying to explain it, became further infuriated by his “piece of metal” comment during a lengthy interview with ESPN on Sunday.

Meanwhile, New York Yankees star Aaron Judge has countless reasons to question whether he rightfully deserved to win the 2017 MVP reward, as he finished runner-up to suspected Houston cheater Jose Altuve, and he doesn’t view the 2017 Astros as true champions.

“It doesn’t hold any value. It wasn’t earned, playing the game right, fighting till the end,” said Judge, who admitted he deleted a tweet congratulating Altuve on winning that MVP.

“To know their team had advantage you couldn’t really guard against, that’s not really earned.”

Even though the Yankees superstar wants to forget about the Astros’ sign stealing scandal and only think about pursuing his team’s long-awaited 28th championship, Judge expects their rival’s underhanded methods to remain a sore spot for some time.

“I could sit up here and lie and say forget about it and move on, but it’s always gonna be in the back of your head a little bit,” Judge said.

“You’re always gonna think about it and you’re always gonna have that bad taste in your mouth thinking about it and hearing about it.”

Fellow Yankees star Brett Gardner added: “Without getting too far into it, it’s frustrating to know, looking back, that maybe we weren’t on an even playing field.”

With the New York Post