It's hard to get New Yorkers to agree on anything. We've had two presidents impeached over the last 20 years, yet each happened under wholly partisan lines. We fight over climate change. We are split over the gentrification of our beloved city. We disagree over the reduction of roads and the imposition of bike lanes. We have endless debates on toll hikes on bridges and rising train fares. We can't even agree on what to do about the homeless.
But we agree that the Houston Astros stink. Not as a baseball team, but as a concept, as supposed peers and competitors in pro sports. They cheated their way to the title, and they got little more than a fine, a report, and tap on the wrist. The players who engaged in the illegal sign stealing were given blanket immunity by the commissioner to flip on their bosses.
But unlike the Mafia, where the shot-callers are the real catch for cops, the two Astros who lost their jobs - manager A.J. Hinch and general manager Jeff Luhnow - aren't the miscreants who had the most to lose. Even the owner of the team, Jim Crane - who's buried in denial and delusion - was fined a paltry $5 million, which is worth about $5 to the rest of us.
A long line of current stars and retired luminaries have thrown down in throaty unison. CC Sabathia, Hank Aaron, Cody Bellinger, Aaron Judge, and even LeBron James have given the Astros a tongue-lashing. Not one former star or current All-Star outside of Houston seems to think the punishment fits the crime.
Everyone is welcome to keep shoving the Astros through the PR minefield. Except the Yankees.
The Yankees are in a historically unique position vis-a-vis their sport - sympathetic. While the world has long branded the Bronx Bombers the unconquerable behemoth of baseball, the U.S. Steel, Microsoft, and Google of their industry, they are now the sudden victims of systemic malfeasance. They were innocent bystanders watching the Astros roll over the 2017 season with high-tech cheating and low-rent ethics. The super-rich Yankees may have an inherent advantage in terms of payroll, but they spend, and play, within the rules.
There's such a frothing hatred toward Houston right now, the Yanks would be wise to just let the world pound the Astros for them. Take the high road while the Astros drown in the sewers of their darkest impulses. Almost everyone who used to play or cover baseball for a living has said that they've never seen such a homogenous hatred toward one team. Pete Rose broke the golden rule of baseball by gambling the Reds while he managed them, yet we are split down the middle on his Hall of Fame bona fides.
Not even the scourge of steroids was met with such sweeping indignity. It speaks to the accuracy of Jose Canseco's assertion that about 80% of players were juicing, and thus the glass house encased the entire sport. And it proves beyond doubt that the Astros were virtually alone in their special brand of espionage.
The Yankees got their shots in during the first few days of spring training. They have officially vented. And now it's time to take their anger out on the American League, show the world how to win with class, inside the lines, and within the rules. Seize on perhaps the lone moment in the last century when the Yankees are not the piñata of our pastime. Let the angry fans, Houston's indignant foes, and a furious media take turns pounding the Astros.
If they play this right, the Yanks may look back on the 2017 season as an act of theft, which turned into sources of inspiration and motivation, and perhaps the karmic kick they needed to win the 2019 Word Series.
Follow Jason on Twitter: @JasonKeidel
