"Fredo, You broke my heart" - My Thoughts on the Houston Astros

I have held off on writing about this topic because I was still processing my emotions.  But I guess today is a good day to deal with this mess, aka the Astros debacle.  It's been a week since all hell seemingly broke loose on my beloved Houston Astros.  As some of you know, my family and I are huge baseball fans.  Ever since I can remember, probably since I was born, I have known about the game.  My dad always expected his first born to be a boy, imagine his surprise when a girl appeared instead.  The story goes that he was in the waiting room, pacing the hours away until my arrival while holding a small baseball bat and glove, and a box of blue ribboned cigars. On my first birthday, my mom tells me I received a pink glove to replace the blue one and a pink baseball. All this to say, I am a long standing baseball fan but more than that, I am and will always be, a die-hard, ride or die, Houston Astros fan.   How could I not be?  I was there when you couldn't give tickets away at the Astrodome, when we were in last place, when season after season, our hearts were broken in gut-wrenching fashion, especially during the playoffs of 1980, 1986 and 2015.  And I was there when in 2017, the baseball gods finally smiled on the Astros again and when we finally returned to the dance and won it all.   But now, amid the cheating scandal and the subsequent fall-out as a result of that, not to mention losing the best manager the Houston Astros organization ever had, my love for the game has acquired a bitter taste to it.

What I want to know is why? Why do something you know in your heart of hearts to be wrong, why do it? Why jeopardize everything for the possibility of an advantage.  Because remember, just because you knew what pitch was coming, you still had to make contact with the ball.  You still had to score.  I am so angry that some of the players felt they had to do what they did when in all actuality, there was no need for that. Our record spoke for itself sans any cheating.

And what of the other teams? The elite teams as some call them, that are acting as if they have never done the same thing?  The Astros cheated.  They got caught and have started paying dearly for their stupidity.  We owned up to it.  But again I ask, what of the other teams?  Some that feel that a certain team up East is untouchable, that they are beyond reproach.  Yeah, right.  To them, especially them, I say, your time is coming.  Nothing in this life is free, and no bad deed goes unpunished.  Ever.  Oh and the last time that that team was in a world series was in 2009.  So shut the eff up.

There has been so much crazy talk going on, such as stripping the 2017 World Series title from the Astros.  I laugh at that notion.  That series was won with grit, heart and gut-wrenching plays.  And? Game 7 was played in LA and won in LA.  Nothing and no one will ever take that away.

Another crazy thing going on? A law firm in Corpus Christie, Texas is soliciting Astros season ticket holders to enter a class-action suit against the team and their organization for causing them pain and suffering and distress as a result of the cheating scandal.  Now, as a member of the legal field with over 29 years of being a paralegal, this has got to be the most asinine idea ever.  Not to mention a prime definition of what a frivolous lawsuit is.

While I still feel sucker-punched by my team and am still so pissed at them for what they did, I remain loyal and true and will cheer them on when the first pitch is thrown at Minute Maid Park.

I am sure more than a few of you will have the total opposite opinion and that's okay, we still live in a free country and everyone is entitled to speak their mind.  We'll agree to disagree mmmkay?

I'm looking forward to the first day of baseball and opening day.  It will be an interesting season that's for sure.