Curse of the Astros

https://youtu.be/8W-lVRQQGtI?si=U6J_hUR9hNFgLz5s

Robert Reich's Five Point Plan for the 2026 Election

To you followers who aren’t baseball fans I offer my sympathies. This is going to be about baseball…again. My heartfelt apologies…sort of.

Note:  The reason I bring up the Astros is that in all of the videos and commentaries that I watched and/or listened to since the end of the series (and I have watched at least 25 of them) didn't broach this subject. Probably because what I propose is nothing more than an undocumented conspiracy theory hatched in the mind of a retired middle school teacher from California.  But, you should still read it because it is at least just a little interesting...

It is a game that I consider the best game ever. The seventh game of this WS was considered by many commentators (and there are lots of them on YouTube) to be the best game in the history of the Best Game. If you had the opportunity to see this year’s World Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Toronto Blue Jays you were treated to a lot more than just the color blue.

For much of the series, Toronto looked like the better team. They hit better and pitched better (most of the time) . But, as the last out was recorded in the 11th Inning of the deciding Game 7, it was the Dodgers doing the celebrating as the World Champions of Major League Baseball.

There were so many moments , so many plays that went against the Blue Jays at key moments that it boggles my simple mind. I think it even boggled the mind of more complex and capable minds. They were on the cusp of a WS title multiple times in Games 6 and 7. It was insanely hard to watch as a Dodgers fan. I can’t even begin to imagine how hard it was for a Blue Jays fan to watch those last two games. It’s almost like the Blue Jays were destined to lose.

I have a soft spot in my heart for a good conspiracy theory. This isn’t exactly a conspiracy theory, but it is equally non-quantifiable and non-evidentiary.

The Blue Jays were statistically the better team throughout the seven games of this World Series. So, why did they lose?

Buckle up because it’s about to get weird here. The Blue jays lost because George Springer was on their team. George Springer is a great player. He had a great year. He played through pain to produce several hits in the series and played his heart out.

So why did the Blue Jays lose because of George Springer if he did such a good job? George Springer was a member of the 2017 Houston Astros. The 2017 Astros won the World Series. The 2017 Houston Astros cheated on their way to that World Series title. Watch the PBS Frontline episode on the scandal that is forever a scar on the game of baseball.

Many people who follow the game, including myself, belief that justice was never done for the victims of the Astros cheating. The Dodgers were on the losing end of the World Series in 2017 and were one their the victims.

The Astros got caught in the act. Yet, Astros never received any quantifiable punishment for their actions. The Commissioner of Baseball allowed them to keep their World Series Championship. The Trophy, the rings. All the bling that goes with winning the championship.

I think that justice is now being served on any current or ex-Astro that was a part of that 2017 team. There is absolutely no way to prove that there is an Astros Curse except to keep an eye on the career paths of anyone associated with that team in any capacity. Players, coaches, Manager, General Manager, or Owner. Only time will tell if my theory is valid or not.

But, this series provides some juicy food for thought. I personally will continue to boo the Astros whenever I get a chance. Maybe I’ll go to Sacramento when the Astros are in town just so I can boo them in person once again. In my mind, the organization will always be associated with cheating, with not playing the game the right way, with crossing the line between trying to gain a competitive advantage to outright cheating.

I’m a firm believer in the adage that “the arc of the moral universe bends toward justice.”

Another analogy for my thesis is that of the compass. In the natural world we have the magnetic compass (which our entire planet is). Even in the world of Science, even the seemingly unchangeable is changeable. North can become South every now and then. Then there’s the moral compass. The moral compass is much more changeable than the magnetic compass because it is not based on scientific evidence. It is based on the human beings in charge at the moment.

The 2017 Houston Astros messed up the moral compass of Major League Baseball. Their deeds were reprehensible by almost any measure of morality. Caution: the definition of morality here is from the Stanford Dictionary of Philosophy. Apparently MLB still has not found its moral compass because the Astros never faced any sanctioned consequences for the immoral actions that they used to win baseball games.

It is because the administrative body of MLB never took action against the Astros for their cheating that members of that team and the teams that they play for now or may play for in the future will have to face the judgement of “the moral arc of the Universe bending toward justice.”

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Can anyone please tell me why eight Democrats chose to sacrifice the health care of the entire country in order to take care of their respective voting constituents? I personally find their decision to be an abdication of their duties as United States senators.

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On the Bright Side

Maybe the eight senators were acting in the best interests of the country by forcing the House of Representatives back into session to vote on the Budget. Now that Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva (D-AZ) must now be sworn in by House Squeeker Mike Johnson, maybe we can begin the process of getting some answers from the Epstein Files. That kind of has a ring to it. It reminds me of “The X Files.”