Do you empathize with the Houston Astros?

[Ice_Ice_Brady]

Just curious if Patriots fans empathize at all with the Houston Astros and the incessant cHeAtErS label they get? If you do a deep dive, you'll realize that this is actually very similar to Spygate where one team (the best team) shoulders the blame for a cheating scandal that was rampant throughout the league, and the advanced stats show this is basically a nothing burger in the big picture...that is, every team tries to get an edge and cheat, the league doesn't care and practically encourages it, and then a bunch of losers (many of whom do basically the same thing) suddenly start crying and making excuses, demanding cavity searches, confessions, etc. Keep in mind that all of the dirt on the Astros is true, but like the Patriots, the only reason it got so much attention is because they're the target of the investigation, whereas the dirt on other teams is essentially swept under the rug. It's no different than an NCAA "investigation" to promote "fairness" and other BS, yet the investigation is limited in scope to nailing one team as a satanic group of evildoers and the other teams are the poor victims, despite that they were doing the same thing.

Since the revelations in 2017, the Astros are still the closest thing to a modern day dynasty in baseball. Their win totals since 2017:

2018: 103 wins (made ALCS)
2019: 107 wins (made World Series)
2020: 29 wins* (made ALCS)
2021: 95 wins (made World Series)
2022: 106 wins (made World Series)

*strike shortened

They've made it to at least the ALCS in all five seasons and this is their third time making the World Series...which is insanely hard to do in baseball with the playoff format and randomness.

I honestly don't see much of a difference between this and SPYGATE!!!!!!!! (omg omg omg) A bunch of biased, self-righteous crap, with the media/league refusing to have any objectivity or ability to retroactively admit they went overboard. Thoughts?

 

[jah]

You've made some persuasive points, but ultimately it's baseball so I remain indifferent.

 

[Sicilian]

I don't know enough about the particulars of the Astros scandal, but in general I've been a lot more forgiving of teams that are caught "cheating" (and I put that in quotes not to say Houston didn't cheat, but just that the label gets thrown around too frivolously IMO). Going through Spygate, and then especially Deflategate just showed me how little people care about facts, logic, or the spirit of a situation, and will latch onto an idea if it helps them hate a team more than they already did. So I wouldn't say I empathize exactly, but since I don't have a direct stake in the situation, I do reserve judgment on them because of what we've been through as Patriots fans.

 

[PatsWickedPissah]

No, I do not because I pay no attention to MLB.

 

[BadMoFo]

So what you're saying is all us cheaters got to stick together. Got it.

 

[Kontradiction]

Not really. But I don’t watch baseball anymore unless I want a good nap.

 

[Triumph]

Baseball is so boring. I cannot make it through a whole season.

I always follow the series, but dont watch the games in there entirety.

 

[slam]

They beat the Yankees repeatedly in the playoffs and lost to the Red Sox so they’re just ducky with me.

 

[denverpatsfan]

Philly fans are puffing out their proverbial chests during this WS. They are stating the Eagles beat the cheating Patriots and now the Phillies will beat the cheating Astros. Non stop. It sickens me enough to secretly root for Houston. I have many connections to Philly having lived in PA for 17 years. Unfortunately losing game 1 is going to doom this Astros team.

 

[Sicilian]

Does every thread about something related to baseball just have to be 50% posts letting everyone know which posters don't like baseball? Is that one of the 10 Patsfans Commandments?

 

[Pape]

i don't ever think about them, so no.

We have been excoriated for years, and still are to a lesser degree, over spygate. the astros haven't a 1000th of the crap the Pats have taken over the years. Let them eat crow for more than a decade, then we can talk

 

[yukon cornelius]

it was actually proven they were cheating, and they actually did cheat.....so i don't see the comparison?

 

[RobertWeathers]

Irrelevent.

They legitimately cheated.

We did not and any non Pats fan who say we do can suck my ****

 

[Hyped]

Does every thread about something related to baseball just have to be 50% posts letting everyone know which posters don't like baseball? Is that one of the 10 Patsfans Commandments?

Yes, it is a commandment!

 

[FCB02062]

Am I from Houston? No. Red Sox or nothing. F Houston.

 

[PancakeBlockPaul]

Just curious if Patriots fans empathize at all with the Houston Astros and the incessant cHeAtErS label they get? If you do a deep dive, you'll realize that this is actually very similar to Spygate where one team (the best team) shoulders the blame for a cheating scandal that was rampant throughout the league, and the advanced stats show this is basically a nothing burger in the big picture...that is, every team tries to get an edge and cheat, the league doesn't care and practically encourages it, and then a bunch of losers (many of whom do basically the same thing) suddenly start crying and making excuses, demanding cavity searches, confessions, etc. Keep in mind that all of the dirt on the Astros is true, but like the Patriots, the only reason it got so much attention is because they're the target of the investigation, whereas the dirt on other teams is essentially swept under the rug. It's no different than an NCAA "investigation" to promote "fairness" and other BS, yet the investigation is limited in scope to nailing one team as a satanic group of evildoers and the other teams are the poor victims, despite that they were doing the same thing.

Since the revelations in 2017, the Astros are still the closest thing to a modern day dynasty in baseball. Their win totals since 2017:

2018: 103 wins (made ALCS)
2019: 107 wins (made World Series)
2020: 29 wins* (made ALCS)
2021: 95 wins (made World Series)
2022: 106 wins (made World Series)

*strike shortened

They've made it to at least the ALCS in all five seasons and this is their third time making the World Series...which is insanely hard to do in baseball with the playoff format and randomness.

I honestly don't see much of a difference between this and SPYGATE!!!!!!!! (omg omg omg) A bunch of biased, self-righteous crap, with the media/league refusing to have any objectivity or ability to retroactively admit they went overboard. Thoughts?

When teams become as good as the pats and in your case Houston have, it paints a target on their back. A very large one. Why? Because everyone else failing miserably wants what they have and said team becomes the “big bad”. The one to beat because well you know…the only way they can win is to “cheat”. People look for things that would fit their agenda. Whether or not everyone else is doing it doesn’t matter. They have their agenda and it fits their confirmation bias as well. Cherry-picking the info that makes the big bad evil empire pats look guilty facts be damned if everyone else is doing it. Not to turn this into anything political but it’s the same thing in politics. I think this whole era of people taking some nobody internet “sleuth”‘a statements as fact with zero research and most said “facts" as truth is here to stay say. So yeah I feel they pain and it sucks.

 

[Kontradiction]

Does every thread about something related to baseball just have to be 50% posts letting everyone know which posters don't like baseball? Is that one of the 10 Patsfans Commandments?

I signed a contract to make at least one contrarian post about Soccer or Baseball in every thread in which those two sports are discussed. A contract means something.

 

[VectorPrime]

The Astros used an ultra-HD camera and a computer program to film and decode pitching signals in real-game time and relayed the information to the batter via banging on a trash can. A scheme that involved every player on the roster.

Patriots meanwhile used a mid 2000s 480p camcorder to record signals from the sideline and then days if not weeks later had a couple rainman nerds like Ernie Adams view the tape to try and match them to the playcalls and then in a possible rematch with the team recognize some if the opposing team was so dumb and went an entire season not changing their signals.

The schemes honestly couldn’t be more different and impactful.

 

[Sicilian]

I signed a contract to make at least one contrarian post about Soccer or Baseball in every thread in which those two sports are discussed. A contract means something.

A man is only as good as his word.

 

[italian pat patriot]

Never been a baseball fan