LA Strikes Out In Bid For Retroactive World Series Titles

LOS ANGELES, CA — The Los Angeles City Council struck out Wednesday in the bid to get the 2017 and 2018 World Series titles awarded to the Dodgers in light of the cheating scandal that has enveloped both championship series.

Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred made the call Wednesday just a day after the City Council passed a resolution calling for the League to strip both the Astros and The Red Sox of their titles amid revelations that the Astros employed cameras in an elaborate scheme to steal pitching signs and allegations that the Red Sox followed suit.

Both teams defeated the Dodgers in the World Series with the scheme's alleged mastermind Alex Cora as their coach.

Manfred called the Los Angeles City Council resolution problematic at best.

"We haven't concluded our investigation with the Red Sox, so it's a little hard to take the trophy away from somebody who hasn't yet been found to do something wrong," Mandred told Fox Business . "We don't know what the outcome of that is going to be."

Besides, he added, there's no guarantee the Dodgers would have won the 2017 World Series.

"It's absolutely unclear that the Dodgers would have been World Series champion," he said. "I think there's a long tradition in baseball of not trying to change what happened. I think the answer from our perspective is to be transparent about what the investigation showed and let our fans make their own decision about what happened."

No players have been punished in the scandal, and the league has given no indication that their championship titles could be in jeopardy. As for consequences, the Astros fired general manager Jeff Luhnow and manager A.J. Hinch after the league's findings were made public, and Cora parted ways with the Red Sox even though the investigation into the Red Sox is ongoing. Cora has not been formally punished by Major League Baseball for his role in the sign-stealing scandal. The New York Mets also parted ways with manager Carlos Beltran, who was alleged to have helped devise the sign-stealing system while in Houston.

The Los Angeles City Council resolution was introduced by Councilmen Paul Koretz and Gilbert Cedillo. While generally acknowledging there is little chance of the Dodgers being awarded the World Series titles, Cedillo said the resolution made a statement against cheating in general.

"Athletes that don't cheat want to compete fairly and want to earn their title," said Cedillo, who represents the district in which Dodger Stadium is located. "What we're looking at is what the record will reflect, and clearly cheaters should not be rewarded. We don't want this to become to the new normal. I can't fathom ... winning a title by cheating and then putting it up on the mantle as if it was legitimate."

Koretz added: "This country needs to receive a message that cheating is not OK. We need that message now more than ever."

City News Service contributed to this report.