Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James on Tuesday became the latest voice to weigh in on the Houston Astros‘ sign-stealing scandal and Rob Manfred’s handling of the situation, urging the baseball commissioner to “fix this for the sake of sports.”
“Listen I know I don’t play baseball but I am in Sports and I know if someone cheated me out of winning the title and I found out about it I would be f—ing irate! I mean like uncontrollable about what I would/could do!” James wrote on Twitter. “Listen here baseball commissioner listen to your players speaking today about how disgusted, mad, hurt, broken, etc etc about this.
“Literally the ball is in your court(or should I say field) and you need to fix this for the sake of Sports! #JustMyThoughtsComingFromASportsJunkieRegardlessMyOwnSportIPlay”
James joins a growing chorus of players who have called out the cheating Astros and Manfred, among them Cody Bellinger and Justin Turner — whose Dodgers lost the 2017 World Series to the Astros in seven games — three-time AL MVP Mike Trout from the crosstown Los Angeles Angels, and Yankees slugger Aaron Judge, who finished as the runner-up in 2017 American League MVP voting to Astros second baseman Jose Altuve.
A league investigation confirmed the Astros had cheated by using a camera-based, sign-stealing system during the regular season and playoffs of their World Series-winning 2017 season and during part of the 2018 regular season. MLB announced its discipline of the team last month, suspending general manager Jeff Luhnow and manager AJ Hinch for the entire 2020 season while stripping the organization of four draft picks and levying a $5 million fine. Both Luhnow and Hinch were fired by owner Jim Crane after the announcement.
But none of Houston’s players was suspended or fined, and Manfred had previously announced that MLB had no plans to strip the Astros of their 2017 World Series title — decisions that have drawn widespread criticism from the baseball community.
Manfred in recent days has defended his punishment of the Astros, but came under fire for characterizing the World Series trophy as a “piece of metal” in an interview with ESPN’s Karl Ravech.
Manfred later apologized for referring to the Commissioner’s Trophy “in a disrespectful way.”
“I’ve awarded five World Series trophies,” he said Tuesday. “There is no greater pleasure in this job than awarding that trophy. I understand what it means. And again, it was a mistake to say what I said.”