LA City Leaders Call On MLB To Award Dodgers World Series Titles

LOS ANGELES, CA — There may not be crying in baseball, but there are a whole lot of hard feelings in Los Angeles as reality sinks in that Major League Baseball's largest cheating scandal in decades could have robbed the Dodgers of World Series titles two years in a row.

Now, diehard Dodger fans are seeking some sort of justice. That includes Los Angeles City Councilmen Paul Koretz and Gilbert Cedillo, who introduced a resolution Wednesday asking Major League Baseball to award the 2017 and 2018 World Series titles to the Dodgers. It's unlikely that they will get their way, but the gesture speaks to the frustration felt across LA.

Perhaps no team was more victimized by the cheating than the Dodgers, who squared off against both teams implicated — the Astros in 2017 and the Red Sox in 2018 —in the World Series. Dominant heading into the World Series, the Dodgers seemily imploded on the pitching mound both years, devastating fans and tarnishing the reputations of the pitching staff. The league concluded this month that Astros management and players cheated by using electronics to steal and relay pitching signs to batters during the games. The investigation into the Red Sox continues. That didn't stop the club this week from firing manager Alex Cora, the alleged mastermind behind the Astros' cheating scheme before heading to Boston and leading the Red Sox to the World Series the following year.

As city leaders seek redress, fans who bought tickets to the allegedly rigged games are threatening class-action lawsuits.

Koretz conceded that it's "uncharted territory" to ask the league to strip two teams of their titles and award them to another, but he said it would be fair to give the Los Angeles players a championship after being cheated.

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According to Forbes Magazine, it's highly unlikely that the teams will have to forfeit their World Series titles, as MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred is "exceptionally limited in making it happen without going to war with the MLBPA," the union that represents the league's players.

"MLB did take it seriously by (issuing) significant suspensions, which were followed by major league clubs firing managers," Koretz told City News Service. "There have been scandals in the past over the century-plus that we've had Major League Baseball in this country. I'm not sure if we've had this documented an effort to steal two World Series, and we know the results. ... I think that would be an appropriate payback. I think this really besmirches the national pastime and the most historic sport in American history, and there has to be a message that this isn't allowed."

The league initially suspended Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow and manager A.J. Hinch for a year, but the club quickly fired the pair. The Astros were also fined $5 million and ordered to forfeit their first- and second- round draft picks for two years.

Koretz, a lifelong Dodger fan, said even the players who knew of the scheme to steal pitch signs but did not come forward about it should be held accountable. He said the cheating likely robbed longtime Dodgers players of a shot at the title, but he conceded there's no way to know.

In the meantime, the Dodgers club has remained silent at the request of the league.

“All clubs have been asked by Major League Baseball not to comment on today’s punishment of the Houston Astros, as it’s inappropriate to comment on discipline imposed on another club,” the Dodgers said in a statement Monday night. “The Dodgers have also been asked not to comment on any wrongdoing during the 2017 World Series and will have no further comment at this time."

City News Service and Patch staffer Paige Austin contributed to this report.