The Houston Astros are Baseball’s Equivalent of Andy Bautista

The baseball season has ended. A rare professional sports final that resembles a WWE pay per view. A final matchup where there is clear cut bad guy and the good guy is whoever is on the other side. The last time there was anything like this was the 2011 NBA final where everybody became a Dallas Mavericks fan because they hated the Boyz II Men pep rally LeBron, Wade and Bosch promised not one , not two ……… championships .

 

Back in 2017 , the Houston Astros beat the Los Angeles Dodgers  in the World Series and people cheered them on . That was a team that succeeded where the Philadelphia 76ers failed. They amassed a lot of talent picking high in the draft and those players blossomed at the right Time. That feel good story soon came tumbling down when a former pitcher of that team , Mike Fiers decided to break the code  of    Omertà  and told the baseball world how they cheated.

The Astros were able to steal the opposing catchers signs then the results were communicated to the batter on the plate using banging on garbage cans and even electronic devices that would make FBI informers proud.

The cheating scandal was noteworthy at this point but MLB botched both the investigation and ensuing discipline . They were honestly hoping for all this to go away and it did not. When the fit hit the shan, we were in Johnny Mathis , Denice Williams territory .

MLB promised immunity to the players in exchange for information . Armed with this , MLB then used that information and expelled the manager and the general manager.   What MLB did is akin to the band aid solution that caused the problem in the movie Poltergeist. They removed the gravestones but kept the bodies in the ground. This put a target on the Houston Astros franchise.

We already had a flaccid solution thank you Major League baseball.. There was no consequence to the players. They kept the money and they kept the championship. At least they would have suffered the wrath of the fans on the road right?? Of course 2020 and COVID was the perfect storm for a great many things in this world. Maybe the one organization in the whole world that benefited from COVID was the Houston Astros. The teams generally played  in front of groundskeepers and minimum security. The one team that should be booed and who deserved to be booed had nobody in 2020 to boo them.

When the 2021 season came, the Astros still had all the money and the championship and all the arrogance. They didn’t even publicly feel bad about their bosses who paid the price. In the Spring of 2021 , the fans flocked back to the ballpark and the Astros got a deferred dose of what they richly deserved.   This report  claims they were hurt by taunting fans. Noynoy Aquino was also hurt when some of the press did not kiss his feet.

Wednesday morning our time, the Astros went into the night quietly. Losing 7-0 in Game 6. In front of their home fans, The last time a World Series winner clinched at home was the 2013 Boston Red Sox. You can hear the collective “good” coming out of people who hate cheaters who were caught red handed and have yet to show an ounce of contrition .

Speaking of people who were fired, impeached and not showing a scintilla of humility, I bring up everybody’s favorite    whipping boy: Andres “Andy” Bautista. The facts and my takes of the former COMELEC head you can find here. 

In 2016, Leni Robredo based on a vote tally produced by Smartmatic machines became the VP. A result that has since been questioned.  In 2017, the Houston Astros won the World Series , a result that has since been questioned. Those two separate incidents have something in common. They still reverberate as of this day. You can also throw in the hubris evident in both camps. The Houston Astros players never once apologized to fans of baseball, The Los Angeles Dodgers ( who were denied their first World Series in 29 years) and their bosses who lost their jobs.

 

Andy Bautista was impeached and then he disappeared . There is a recent warrant out for his arrest.  In the wake of his disappearance , I have not heard one yellow/ pink condemn him. Yet they are the same people who would seem to benefit from the alleged election data privacy breach. Wouldn’t they also want him brought to justice so they can prove their innocence? Unless such a revelation would just ” complicate ” things. Leni resents the FVP tag but yet is entirely mum on anything Andy Bautista related. The yellows ( who now call themselves pink) want you to believe Leni was legally elected. I find that hard to believe considering being associated with Leni in the 2019 election was the kiss of death.

 

 

In the two separate realms of Major League Baseball and Pinoy politics, we are experiencing a confluence of a backlash of deception. The Houston Astros stole signs and unofficially innovated baseball with technology all the way to a World Series they did not deserve. The once mighty Liberal Party only four  months removed from the death of their ideal president is a non factor in the current campaign. They are instead scurrying with color changes, rebranding, inflated motorcades, attempted disqualification bids on a 26 year old case.  I don’t know about you but only Astros fans want to see a baseball team rewarded for cheating.  The elections in May are about much more than baseball. There are forces that create motorcades that don’t care there was cheating in 2016. That is exactly why Andy Bautista is nowhere to be found and none of the pinks care to whip him out of hiding.