Cleveland Indians: The frustrating situation of the Astros and spying

Major League Baseball did not punish the Houston Astros for what sure looks like spying against both the Cleveland Indians and Boston Red Sox.

Cleveland Indians fans are already upset about the team losing in the ALDS.

Then there were the odd comments from players about how the Houston Astros may have been better prepared than the Indians. That seemed to be pointing toward a deficiency in the front office.

In reality, they may have been referring to this.

The look of a man totally not spying.

Jeff Passan did some great reporting on this situation and it is pretty clear that the Astros were up to some shady business. The team responded by claiming that this man was only there, uncredentialed, to make sure the Indians, and the Red Sox, weren’t cheating.

Are you serious?

Wait, it gets better because the league bought the excuse.

This is an absolute joke. This excuse is used is so many different contexts and every single time it is laughed at as ridiculous. But not in this instance. The league sees it as proof of innocence.

Let’s be clear, the Astros whooped the Indians. But every game had its turning point. If any game was at all influenced by this individual, that is a reason to be upset.

I’m not a big believer in karma but it was fascinating to see so much go against the Astros in Game 4 of the ALCS, capped off by a diving catch that may go down in Red Sox lore.

I found myself not angry, but disgusted with this news of spying. Some quickly point out that every team cheats, but if that is the case then there would be no rules in the first place. This was clearly something illegal, yet the league doesn’t want to jump in and do anything about it during the postseason.

I’m frustrated and I feel bad for the Indians, but what this did do was give me some rooting interest during the remainder of the postseason. Anyone but the Astros.