Looks at how hard they have been crying about the Astros cheating even though they have only won one World Series title. Imagine if we have won 10% of what the Yankees have won, how hard would they cry? Right now alone, MLB is covering up for the Yankees as the Yankees were in court recently to fight off against big-time cheating scandal from being exposed to the rest of the world. They are petitioning the court to help them keep their shady dealings under wraps and MLB is also there every step of the way to help them achieve that goal. The fact that MLB threw the Astros to the wolves for them to be devoured, but instead is helping the Yankees to keep any of their crimes from being exposed shows you just how badly the system is rigged for a team like the Yankees and against a team like the Astros. You don’t win 27 World Series titles while some teams haven’t won one without some kind of cheating taking place. There’s nothing wrong in wanting the game to be fair and all teams to be abiding by the same rules. That’s what being a “good sport” is all about, right?
What you’re describing though isn’t rigging, its something entirely different. Were there other teams cheating in 2017? Yes. How rampant was it? Who knows, my guess would be pretty rampant. Probably as widespread as sticky stuff was in the most recent scandal and steroids were in the 90’s and early 2000’s. Each time there’s a cheating scandal in baseball the league reacts in a very predictable way. They sweep it under the rug. They cover it up as much as possible because its bad for the image of the league. You say the league threw the Astros to the wolves, but they didn’t do that because they wanted to. Rather they did so because their hand was forced. The difference between the Astros and all the other teams that were likely doing the same thing is the Astros had a whistleblower. Without Mike Fiers there never is an investigation and media fire storm. Whats funny is you think the league came down hard on the Astros but in reality we got off with a slap on the wrist. Really the only significant punishment was Hinch’s suspension forced us to part ways with the best manager in franchise history. That’s it. Other fan bases feel like we didn’t get punished at all. Now this is only conjecture on my part but I think the fact that we got off with such a light punishment is a tacit admission by the league that we weren’t the only team cheating. We served as the fall guy for the public but otherwise got off scott free. The league protected us because that’s what it does. It protects its members because doing so keeps the brand protected. So yes the league is currently shielding the Yankees because that’s how it operates, but that’s entirely different then rigging the outcome of games. Now that isn’t to say that the league isn’t structurally imbalanced. The lack of a salary cap for instance allows for big market teams to outspend there small and mid market competitors. However, the advent of money ball and analytics have allowed for the lower rung teams to build competitive rosters at a fraction of the cost that the Yankees and Dodgers do. There’s actually more parity in the league than ever. In the last 20 years we’ve had 14 different champions and had 22 different teams make the WS. Compare that with the NBA which has had 10 different champions in the same span and had 16 different teams make a finals appearance.
Also worth mentioning that in the last 20 years we’ve had 4 first time champs and 7 teams make their first WS. On top of that we saw the 3 longest title droughts in the sports history get snapped (Boston, ChiSox, and Cubs).
I don’t think the umps are cheating for a team and there has never been a single instance of that being proven in over 145 years of MLB history, not to say it hasn’t happened… but I will say there are some really crappy umps ie: Angel Hernandez. I’m just old school purist, the less electronic bs the better. Heck getting on blue from the dugout or talking smack from the stands was/is part of the game
I believe the outcome of games should be determined by the players, managers, and coaches. I grew tired of umpires affecting the outcome of games decades ago and find it suspicious that most blown calls do seem to favor teams that have higher tv ratings. I don’t care if they use technology or not. I just want to see balls called balls and strikes called strikes.
I understand, but it is the passion involved in arguing said called ball or strike that makes the game great.
If it ever gets technologically exact and robotic, then what is really the point of the exercise?
Allowing the umps to cheat makes the game more interesting says the Yankee fan. Could the reason he feel this way has something to do with the fact that he knows his Yankees’ dominance of the game would come to end if we take away the power of the umps to cheat for his team?
I don’t know anything at all about how robot umpires operate, but is a robot really any better at determining where the strike zone is? I mean, it’s easy to tell when a pitch is inside the “box” they show on TV, but how accurate is the “box”?
There’s just a lot of fuzziness about the strike zone in general. It’s not an exact measurement. MLB’s definition: The official strike zone is the area over home plate from the midpoint between a batter’s shoulders and the top of the uniform pants – when the batter is in his stance and prepared to swing at a pitched ball – and a point just below the kneecap.
I know that we all know what the strike zone is when it’s our team getting screwed… 
but it’s not 100% precise. I agree with the others that the human element of umpires calling balls and strikes is part of the joy (and frustration) of baseball. It’s why we love the game.
I’m pretty sure God could be behind the plate and people would still try to argue balls and strikes lol
As much as I get annoyed by bad umps, I really would like to keep the game as original as possible. I’m so tired of people always trying to change the rules of the game. Especially the ones who have never played it or the writers who probably started covering it recently and decided it needs to tailor to them.
I would also add that the reason the players didn’t get suspended was because there would have been no investigation to work with. What if the players all just denied it or refused to cooperate? Then nothing would have come to light. So the league gave them immunity, in order to move forward with the investigation.
It’s what I speculate happened with the Red Sox players. They saw the backlash that the Astros were receiving and probably got together and said that it wasn’t a whole lot and they got off with a slap on the wrist as well. They lost draft picks for one season and the blame was pinned on a clubhouse attendant when Cora was one of the masterminds of the whole operation who brought it to the Astros clubhouse. Even in some interviews while managing the Red Sox, you could see him jokingly hinting that they were doing stuff behind the scenes to gain an advantage.