houston astros

Having worked in minor league baseball, one learns that in-between-innings promotions with little kids don't always go exactly how planned. In fact, even in the big leagues a six-year-old does what, well, a six-year-old does! Who knows what that is going to be? Tuesday night, as the Mets were taking on the Astros, the Houston promotional staff and players got a big surprise from six-year-old "Oliver," during a fan contest.

Some things are pretty simple. Cheating is cheating. There is no, "well, they sort of cheated" in Major League Baseball, where franchises are worth billions and players salaries are predicated on performance. Or maybe there is. On Tuesday, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred's 2017 infamous "Yankee letter" was released, as directed by a judge.

The colors and the name across the chest were new. The long blonde hair on the 6' 6" frame was all too familiar. Former New York Mets right-handed pitcher, Noah Syndergaard threw his first regular season pitches for his new team on Saturday. He wore number 34, like he did with the Mets. However, an Angels player had not worn that number in 13 years, exactly.

According to reports Sunday night by MLB network's Jon Heyman, the Mets have narrowed down their search to 3 and believe it or not, it looks like they picked the right 3. Buck Showalter, Joe Espada and Bethlehem Central High School grad Matt Quatraro are the 3 finalists. Eppler almost hired Showalter in Anaheim and has ties to Espada from their days in the Yankees organization. They were the first two names reported on Sunday by Heyman, maybe that was intentional, maybe not.

The Capital Region has a rich history when it comes to the sport of baseball. Minor league baseball has been weaved in the fabric of this area for decades. From the Albany Senators, to the Albany-Colonie A's, to the A-C Yankees, then Diamond Dogs and now the Tri City ValleyCats, this community has witnessed greatness in many stages on local diamonds.

Fans of the ValleyCats and Red Sox have known that Kike Hernandez was a good baseball player. What we didn't realize, was that he was about to make history.

Boston Red Sox fans know the value of their once banished manager, Alex Cora, to the success of their franchise. Cora admitted his guilt in the Houston Astros cheating scandal, served his suspension and moved on. Friday, the once villain of Major League Baseball, led his team against his former team that was accused of cheating in the American League Championship Series. You almost couldn't have made it up.

It's blanket statement time: the 2021 ALCS, about to be played between the Boston Red Sox and Houston Astros, would not be happening without the Capital Region.

Now that Houston Astros' Owner and Chairman Jim Crane has addressed the media about the Sign Stealing Scandal I feel worse about them than I did before. Crane seemed to double talk and attempted many times to downplay the severity of his team cheating.

The American League Championship Series is basically going how many of us predicted before it began but somehow feels worse. The theory was the Yankees need to beat everyone not named Justin Verlander or Gerrit Cole and they'd be fine. Now obviously you'd most likely need to beat one of them but if that's game 7 on short rest so be it. So here we are trailing 2 - 1 after losing to Cole and Verlander and everyone is blaming the Yankees' pitching. If you want to blame someone that's fine but pitching isn't the issue!

Sean Pendergast is the morning host on Sports Radio 610 in Houston. Sean was nice enough to come on the show with Levack and Goz so of course Levack was completely respectful and not a total Yankee homer. That's a lie, I totally tried to convince him the Astros would lose.

The 2018 American League Championship Series is a joke! If Major League Baseball had any morals at all they would disqualify both the Boston Red Sox and the Houston Astros and start the series over with the New York Yankees and The Cleveland Indians because there's proof that both the Red Sox and the Astros are cheaters.