Update: The original version of this article was published in January 2020 and has been updated periodically.
The Houston Astros have reached the World Series for the third time since one of baseball’s biggest cheating scandals in years tarnished the team’s championship in 2017.
Here’s what to know about the sign-stealing scheme, which reverberated across the sports pages and through stadiums across the country.
What penalties were handed down?
The Astros fired Manager A.J. Hinch and General Manager Jeff Luhnow in January 2020 after Major League Baseball fined the club $5 million and docked several top draft picks over the scheme.
Both had been suspended for one year by Robert D. Manfred, the baseball commissioner, who has been intensely criticized for not punishing any of the players and not vacating the Astros’ World Series title from 2017. (Hinch’s exile from baseball did not last long. He was named manager of the Detroit Tigers on Oct. 30, 2020, less than 72 hours after his suspension expired.)
Then, the Boston Red Sox parted ways with Manager Alex Cora — only to rehire him less than a year later — after the M.L.B. report implicated him in the scheme from his time as the Astros’ bench coach in 2017.
The next domino to fall was the newly hired manager of the New York Mets, Carlos Beltran, who resigned before he ever managed a game for the team. He was an outfielder for the Astros during the 2017 season.
Is it just the fans who care?
No. Players around the league wondered whether they had been robbed of baseball immortality because of Houston’s cheating ways.
Aaron Judge, the New York Yankees slugger known for giving diplomatic answers, didn’t mince words at the start of spring training in 2020.
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