I think that the way to deal with cheaters in the sports is by having them either pay a fine or have them removed from the sport for a couple weeks or months (depending on the situation) . I don't think that we should strip their titles because its unfair on the whole team. Instead if a player cheats in a very important game, that match should be replayed instead of not doing anything. Cheating in sports is very big problem because if people cheat in a sport the people watching would probably be uninterested in what their watching and stop watching costing the players and the sport big problems. The doping of the race horses concerns me the most because it shows the extent that people will go to cheat because putting drugs in a horse is inhumane and cruel. To prevent cheating in sports making the players sit out the season makes them not want to cheat again.
In order to penalize cheaters in professional sports, all of the money they made from that particular event should be taken away from them, and they should also be disqualified from the competition. Just the accomplishments that they used cheats to obtain should have an asterisk next to them. Just the titles they obtained by cheating should be removed from their transcripts. While cheating is rare at the professional level, it is not the biggest issue in sports. The issue of kids cheating a lot worsens at the junior level, where there are few referees. Sports scandals including cheating do make it more difficult for spectators to watch and make you dislike your favorite players less.
The most notable and alarming recent incident was Tom Brady's Deflategate. This was troubling since Tom Brady is regarded as one of the top players, and the NFL is not in the best of states if he is caught cheating in the Super Bowl. I would never cheat in sports since doing so demonstrates that you aren't as skilled as your competitors; rather, if you were, you could defeat them using only your skills. Because professional athletes are ultimately cheating to get a financial advantage, increasing fines will help prevent cheating because it will discourage athletes from engaging in the practice.
I hate the Astros with a passion they should be striped of their title.
L Bozo
@L I completely agree with this comment. The fact that they won the world series cheating is just terribly unfair. The league should fire everyone on that team that was proved a cheater and their coaches should never be able to coach again.
Personally, we shouldn't be punishing any sports cheaters because they shouldn't exist. There real question that we should be asking is, what is the best way to prevent sports cheaters? If we don't have a good way to prevent cheating in sports, why are surprised when people do?
The one thing in sports that all people are equal in front of are the rules. No matter how experienced you are, how old you are, or even how good you are at the sport, the same rules apply to you. Thus, it is no surprise that when an athlete cheats it creates a huge scandal. When an athlete cheats it makes the game unfair. The Houston Astros got off pretty easily. When you look at it, they won because they had an advantage. If they didn't cheat would they have won? Maybe, but that doesn't matter because if they didn't cheat the other teams might have beaten them. I think if an athlete cheats the whole team should be punished so that the rest of the team won't let their player cheat.
In my opinion i think that if it is the player that is cheating during the game or out of the game depending how bad it is i think that they should have a suspension. Like in football for example if you get a red card then you get a one game suspension. But for example if they talked back to the ref and sore or hurt a player after he said that then they could have a much longer suspension. I think that they still should have won because I get they were cheating but it already happened and it was just the manager who was doing it. I think that they should still have one the title because they were the best team the whole season. They played the Los Angeles Dodgers that were also a very good team it was 3-3 next game would win and the astros won 5-1 it's not like it was that close of a game so i think that it should count.
When you work as hard as athletes do to get into a league, its sickening to see cheating involved in sports. The Houston Astros got off easy in 2019 as they cheated their way to a championship, as I thought the punishment was light. I fell all players should be fined, and banned for an extended time depending on the impact of the cheating goes. They had so much talent on their roster it just doesnt sit right with me they would rather use a cheating tactic. The amount of money players make is a little too much so the fact they cheat and keep the large amounts of money is humiliating.
I think sports should punish the whole team for cheating because if one player on the team does it it affects the whole team. I think all the teams who cheat should not have an asterisk placed next to their advancement because they didn't earn it. I think the team who cheat yes should be stripped of their title because once they didn't earn it and the rest of their life people would just call them cheaters. One more thing to add on all the players who said “I didn't do it my teammates did” there still a team so still take a small bit of blame. Thats just what I think. :)
Cheating is sports is a huge issue. This is because athletes get so caught up in the pressure and competition that they will do anything to win. The article talked about some of the excuses they give and I think the excuse "Well everyone else is doing it" is a massive issue. This is because to stop cheating is sports you must stop it all not just one instance or person. The quotes also shows the mindset that they athletes get in because they want to win and are willing to cheat just to have a shot at it. This is why cheating must be punished and must stop.
Cheaters in professional sports should be punished by having all of the money they made from that certain event taken away from them and should be disqualified from the event. They should only have asterisks places next to the achievements that they cheated to get. They should only lose credit for the titles that they cheated to get. Cheating is not the biggest problem in sports because it doesn’t happen that much at the professional level. But at the junior level without a lot of referees it becomes a major problem with kids cheating a lot. Cheating scandals in sports do make it worse for a fan to watch and make you not like your favorite players as much. Tom Brady’s Deflategate was the most rememberable and most concerning in recent times. This was concerning because Tom Brady is known as one of the best players and for him to be cheating n the Super bowl it shows that the NFL is not in the best states. I would never cheat in sports because having to cheat to win shows that you aren’t as good as your opposition because if you were as good you wouldn’t have to cheat and could beat them with just your abilities. To avoid cheating in professional sports you need to make the fines larger because they are ultimately cheating to get money and if they lose the money from that it would make them not want to cheat as much.
I believe the big leagues should punish cheaters with at least a two week suspension depending on the severity of the cheating. I don’t think the cheaters should be stripped of their titles but I think they should broadcast it to everyone around the world so the word spreads. Cheating isn’t the hugest problem in sports mainly because the players know the hate and backlash they would receive by their fans if they were ever to do this. These types of scandals sway me to not root for these cheaters when it comes down to it. Tom Brady’s deflating concerned me the most. Only because no punishment came into play, only a couple bad views onto his all star title. I think it matters because if any other player did this and got caught they would be suspended immediately. I strongly disagree that you have to cheat to win. I’ve never considered cheating because it just takes away the satisfaction from actually winning fairly and earning it correctly. It seems like the only way to prevent this cheating from reoccurring is hiring top tier referees to watch over the entire game, looking for any foolery. However, in the long run people will always try to stretch the rules and attempt to cheat in games so the only thing big teams can really do is prepare for when the worst happens.
I believed that the Astro’s punishment should have been more severe and the players would agree as well. I think Rob Manfred, MLB commissioner, was mistaken with the punishment not being harsh enough because he overlooked what the players had to say about it. The commissioners punishment was in a word “light”. The players wanted the MLB to strip there World Series titles, but they didn’t. Unhappy with the results of the scandal, pitchers from teams all over the league decided to intentionally hit the Astro’s batters to, “make them pay” for what they did. One situation this season, saw Joe Kelly, L.A Dodgers relief pitcher/former Red Sox, threw pitches close to the heads of Alex Bregman and Carlos Correa. Bregman drew a walk for the at bat, but Correa struck out on a breaking ball outside. Joe Kelley triumphantly walked off the mound towards the dugout until he heard a muttering voice, “that was too high” said Correa. Joe Kelley looked him in the eye and said “are you gonna cry?”. Then I brawl took place and benches cleared. This situation could have all been avoided if the MLB had stripped the World Series Title away from the Astro’s and given it either to the Dodgers, or just declare there was no winner.
I personally believe that the Houston Astros should be stripped of their world series title. The extent to which they cheated gave them such an enormous advantage that they could win nearly any game on their home field. There were numerous times, especially in the playoffs, where they either won by a large margin on their home field or made a great comeback due to how they used electronics to steal signs. The only reason they didn’t win back to back championships was due to how the Washington Nationals had to change their signs nearly every at bat because they knew the Astros were cheating and had to tray and throw them off. One of the most difficult aspects in all of sports is hitting a baseball and knowing what pitch is coming gives the batter an insane advantage. The Astros batters having this advantage every at bat makes it incredibly unfair to every other team in the league and gives them the best advantage in all of sports.
When it comes to cheating, it’s one of those things that doesn’t belong in any sport or really any part of life. When you have players/teams working their hardest everyday for almost a year make it to the championship and lose to cheaters, not only does it look bad on the behalf of the entire league, but it also calls for some repercussions when it comes to the teams cheating. While, I don’t think people should be banned entirely from a league for cheating I do believe they should be suspended for a good amount of time. As seen last year with the Astros there was almost no consequences for a team that cheated to win the World Series, and that is not the way to handle cheaters. I also believe cheaters should be punished by not being able to make it into the hall of fame. Sure, they might be one of the top players in the league but if they cheat and ruin the integrity of the game they deserve to be punished. While I don’t believe that consequences need to be over the top, there needs to be some sort of consequences like a suspension, or a fine to let teams know that the league won’t stand for acts of cheating.
I think that cheating in sports is unjust. The punishment for sport cheaters should depend on what the player did.
When you are a participant in any sport you have a main goal to win a championship in that sport.
For me, if you cheat to win it won't even be beautiful and no one will relish it.
To win a trophy or a competition, you have to fight and give the best of yourself. Cheating should result in measures and sanctions inkeeping with degree of cheating. If you win by cheating a competition the prize should be withdrawn and you should be excluded from championships during a year.
1
The Astros should be stripped of their World Series title honestly.
I think that if you are cheating you ain't trying witch is the opposite of , "if you ain't cheating, you ain't trying." I also think that "everyone is doing it" is not a legitimate excuse for cheating. Like you are only apologizing because you got caught.
In my opinion, I believe that cheaters in sports should be punished. Those involved in cheating should be kicked out of their organization, and the coaches involved should also be fired. Due to high demand in sports attire, if someone wins a title, they can cause the opposing team to lose money. Not only would the team lose money, but it would overall be a let-down to their fans and maybe even to themselves. It is not fair for teams to get away with cheating, therefore there should be major consequences.
In my opinion the way we need to punish these sports cheater is leaving their title but yes having the title "asterisks" next to their name let me tell you why. By winning a title, only three things are rewarded the pride and dignity and reputation. The player or team doesn't care for the trophy or the materialistic thing they care for the morale things that come with it. So if you take away all the moral significance to the trophy by assigning the title it takes away all that morale significance
Yes, strip their titles and any individual records due the cheating either operationally or through performance enhancing drugs. I still cannot believe Barry Bonds’ home run records have not been stricken from the records. Hank Aaron should have the most home runs in a career Roger Maris/Babe Ruth should have the season home run record. Nobody has come really close to breaking the season home run record since the cheating ended. Stealing signs is very unfair. Like Mike Trout said, “I wish I knew what was coming.”
Headline : Punishment for athletes
In my opinion I think we should punish sports cheaters. And I think the Houston General handled it well doing what he did. This is a professional setting and these games are taken very seriously so if a team were to cheat, then the punishment should be serious. I think that if a certain player does something wrong then they should be kicked off or suspended for a good amount of time.
Over the past years cheating has become a very big problem throughout sports. From Performance enhancing drugs to technology used to promote unfair situations cheating scandals are increasing. In my opinion sports cheaters should be stripped of all titles and accomplishments as they so called “finessed” the system in order to give themselves an advantage. When one cheats it is usually because they are losing or struggling, so most likely the team that is cheating would also struggle to win a championship. The scandal that concerns me the most is the astros sign stealing as it’s very easy to do without any witnesses, but also one of the hardest things to do in sports is hit a baseball due to the uncertainty of what pitch is coming, yet when hitters know what’s coming it makes it so much easier to hit. Some of which can be home runs, and the difference between a win and a loss. Cheating has become a lot more frequent and appealing to some but most stay away from things like this. Finally if I was the commissioner of the MLB I would strip them away of their title and suspend or fine them.
In today’s society, cheating is becoming more and more of a major issue, especially in the sports world. This was seen recently with The Houston Astros, an MLB team with multiple major titles, they were caught cheating in their 2019 baseball season. In my opinion, the Astros should be punished to a further extent than what was originally enacted. It needs to be recognized that this type of cheating is disrespectful to every team in the MLB and should result in excessive punishment. However, the reality remains that Astros that the Astros received limited punishment and secured multiple titles and games resulting in the cash flow of hundreds of thousands of dollars earned illegitimately.
I think that cheating in sports is unjust. I feel that a player should not have the right to do that. Cheating is an act of not being kind nor being truthful. I just think that sports players should be punished for cheating. It’s not fair to the other team nor the fans. The fans come to see good and interesting game if there are players cheating. The fans are wasting their time and money because that shows that the cheating team can’t win fairly. I do believe cheating sports players should get punished.
I think that cheating in a sport is uncivilized and showing disrespect to your team and to yourself. I would find it very rare if a team like the Astros had players who did not know about what was going on behind the scenes. Even if you didn’t do anything about it you’re still technically involved, as it shows you were neither for nor against it, but if found guilty you will pay the consequences. Therefore, cheating in sports, especially professional, is very unprofessional as you represent yourself as someone with low dignity.
“No mercy.”
It infuriates me when I’m playing a small pickup game with some friends and one of them starts cheating. Imagine spending your entire life, all of your time, and putting all of your energy into one single game. Whether it be the super bowl or world cup and even the world series. I could go on forever about all the titles sports players around the world dream of abstaining. Now imagine all of this work just to have it all stripped away right in front of your face. All because one team who decided to cheat. You feel horrible right now imagine them in a field of dandelions where they’re practically set free. Then how would you feel.
Sports teams should face late round picks and fines but that seems worth it to have an amazing title under my name. So I believe you should be disqualified from the playoffs and/or world winner. Even if caught cheating in a regular season game. Teams should have enough dignity and confidence at that level to where they should never have to cheat. So I say have no mercy.
I think sports should handle cheating worse then they do now. I think they should ban players for a couple years and take the team's wins/championships away from them. I think this is important because its like they get a free win/ championship its not fair. I believe the article is asking our opinions. They are asking our opinions on what they should do to sport cheaters. I think cheaters don't have a place in sports. Everyone is trying there hardest but cheaters ruin it and have no chance.
@matt I think your statement, "I think cheaters don't have a place in sports," is a very true and agreeable statement. Cheaters do not belong in sports, because they are not playing the game for what it's worth. Cheaters are ruthless and they do what they can to get ahead, even though the other team doesn't deserve it. Once caught, I believe they should immediately be kicked off or suspended from practices and games because if they aren't being a good teammate or opponent, then they shouldn't be one at all.
@matt I agree with you Matt. Its like they just got something handed to them that they didn't deserve while everyone else worked hard to win something that they didn't have the chance to. I love your statement of "cheaters don't have a place in sports. " It truly isn't fair to everyone else.
I believe cheaters should be severely punished for their actions, especially on a national sports stage as big as the MLB. On a national stage as big as that one, with millions of people watching, with millions of kids looking up to those players, cheating is unacceptable. Professional athletes are very determined individuals, and with hundreds of millions of dollars on the line, cheating is a very tempting option. But that doesn't make it okay. The cheating players on the Houston Astros should be suspended for a year, and the organization should be stripped of their World Series Title. Cheating is an absurd action when it comes to sport's etiquette, and on the highest level of baseball, cheating should be even more heavily punished. If they cheat once, then they will definitely have the temptation to cheat again. The MLB and other professional sports organizations should take stricter precautions to prevent occasions like this from happening in the future.
@Hart P.
I completely agree with you. I noticed that you said professional sports organizations should take stricter precautions to prevent occasions like this from happening in the future. A big fine and losing top picks doesn’t even equal the amount of time and dedication the other players have put into trying to win such a title as the world series winner. It’s not fair to the other teams.
So I agree there should be way stricter rules on cheating and to the teams who do I say no mercy.
I think that the punishment for sport cheaters should depend on what the player did. Depending on the severity of the situation, the punishment for a sports cheater should vary from just a warning, to being permanently kicked of the team.
@Emily Orsino I completely agree with you. I think that sports judges have to look at the situation either way and then decide how to punish a team or a person based on the things they did.
I think any sports cheater should be punished. Especially the Astros. They were caught cheating and their original punishment was that they suspended their manager and assistant manager, was fined 5 million dollars in 2020 and 2021 and they lost their draft pick spot. but turned out that they fired both of their managers which SHOULD be done. They also fired the red sox manager EW and the Mets manager who didn't even manage a game EW. but i think Jose Altuve and Springer should be banned from baseball. instead the MLB gave them immunity for an honest testimony which is crap. because i don't think they are really going to tell the truth. this scandal isn't just a camera in center field it is wiring under the players jerseys. they should be banned from baseball forever because when someone in the past was caught cheating HE was banned. when arod was caught using steroids HE was suspended. these two houston astros players get immunity and no suspension. so unfair what the heck. why are we giving acceptations, if the yankees were in the position is would be so much worse. i think the astros should have a worse punishment and altuve should be banned or suspended.
@Juliette Grillo I agree with you. I think the Astros should have gotten a worse punishment because what they did was not good and definitely not professional.
I think that the punishment for sport cheaters should depend on what the player did. Depending on the severity of the situation, the punishment for a sports cheater should vary from just a warning, to being permanently kicked of the team.
@Jon While I agree with your argument, I believe in this case the Astros players should receive the highest form of punishment in being suspended from the MLB for a time. Cheating in a regular season game is one thing, however cheating in order to win the World Series is the biggest offense in the baseball world. Key players such as Clayton Kershaw with the Los Angeles Dodgers and Yu Darvish were completely destroyed and trash talked majorly by fans and non-Dodgers fans for “giving up” the World Series. Retired Dodger icon Andre Eithier could have received his first World Series ring after 11 loyal years with the Dodgers, however he was robbed from this accomplishment. The Houston Astros players should therefore receive one of the highest forms of punishment as they were aware of the situation and did nothing to stop it. In a video proving the Astros’ cheating, it can be seen how Jose Altuve, star Astros batter, walks by the station in which the monitors to watch the Dodgers’ signs are placed and reacts in no way showing how he is accustomed to it. Ultimately, the players are equally to blame as the managers and in this case should be punished as well.
I believe the best way to punish sport cheaters is to permanently kick them from the team. This is because, if they cheated once, they might cheat again. Another example of a punishment could be is for the player to not have any earnings. If the player cheated, restrain from earning any money, in their entire career. They can also take back all the earnings that player has received.
Cheating should be punished. It's known that it's wrong and yet people continue to do it. The sports team should be punished for the crime to show others that it's wrong to do so and should be punished. Others should look at them as an example so they wouldn't copy.
When the Houston Astros won the World Series in 2017, even though I am a Braves fan, I was extremely happy for them. I felt as if they earned it and considering they hadn't been too good for a while, it was a good time for them. I would later come to find they cheated during their postseason run to defeat the Yankees and claim the title. I feel as if they may still have won without cheating considering all the talent on their loaded roster. But still, this is 100 percent unacceptable. The franchise should be embarrassed and should be stripped of their title. There needs to be better procedures to insure everyone is playing the right way competitively. The technology is getting better and better everyday. The Astros should be ashamed!
When I first found out about the conspiricy that the Houston Astros cheated agaist the Yankees to go to the World Series I thought it was fake. Im a Yankees fan and yet some of my favorite players played on the astros. When i than herd that the Astros were banging on garbage cans and stealing signs with a buzzer attached to the players I became extremly angry. I was mad at the fact that the Yankees should have easily beat the Astros and gone to the world seris. I was also mad at the fact that some of my favorite players on the Astros has the need to cheat! I belive evreybody on the team should be fined and suspended from the game of baseball. What a disgrace!
I hate these kind of debates. It is all opinionated and there will never be a right answer. Some will say they did too much and others not enough. Personally, I agree with the later. This team cheated, there is no doubt about it. We don't know whether they would've won without it or if it actually changed the outcome, but nevertheless, they used an unfair advantage against the team. I believe that this team should be used as an example. As a precedent for any other teams that cheating will not be tolerated and the outcome of it will be getting stripped of the title.
I do not believe that this cheating really affected the outcome drastically and think that they would have still won without it, but the punishment should discourage any form of cheating from ever happening again. Like the Olympic officials, the best way to deal with it is to ban players and coaches and/or strip the team of their medal which they are undeserving of. By letting them keep it and only giving that team a little slap on the wrist, is not enough to discourage others to not do the same and keep the game of baseball fair.
When you are a participant in any sport you have a main goal to win a championship in that sport. However, when you cheat in order to reach this goal, then you should be stripped from your title and be forced to admit to their wrongdoings. In this scenario, the Astros, one of the best teams in baseball, used their cameras in their arena in order to steal the different play calls from the other team. This is already a very bad thing to do but its even worse that this occurred during the biggest game in baseball, the World Series. This event happened in the 2017 World Series and was finally discovered a couple years later, 2019. In this article many individuals have different opinions on what to do with this event since it has been a least a couple years since the incident however, many argue that their rings should be taken away from them. I believe that these individuals should be dethroned of their title.
I think that anyone caught cheating should definitely be stripped of they're title because it will encourage more people to not cheat. I think that cheating is somewhat big in sports and I also agree with the author that we are in the asterisk era. The sign stealing scandal is the most concerning to me because they cheated with technology which is always getting better. I think the adage is not true because cheating makes things a lot easier like looking at a key for a puzzle while trying to solve it you used no effort. Cheating might be reduced by looking over footage from cameras or make an incentive to not cheat like a big punishment.
After thousands of hours of hard work and dedication, you finally get to your final destination. Then, your opponents disdainfully cheat in order to acquire the title in a quicker/shortcut type of way. In my opinion, this should lead to severe consequences for the cheating side, and they should be given punishments that stop them from repeating the same action in future competitions. Everybody in the sports world would agree that cheating is bad—and for that simple reason alone, it should never be tolerated.
@Adam Klimala I agree. It is not fair for the athletes who worked had to get where they are to get a lesser title than those who cheat.
I believe every athlete, coach, manager, intelligence, and administration in the Houston Astros organization should be banned from the game of baseball for life.
Too harsh of a punishment? Look for example at the Black Sox Scandal, which occurred during the 1919 World Series. in which players on the Chicago White Sox infamously took payments from big-time gamblers as a bribe to throw the World Series, and ensure the gamblers had a great pay day. What was the punishment for these players when the league office found out?
Eight of them were banned from baseball. FOR LIFE.
If Major League Baseball were to follow precedent, everyone involved in this sign stealing scandal would too be suspended for life. Although the Astros used, "a television monitor near the dugout to watch the opposing catcher give his pitching signs, then having teammates bang a trash can to let the batter know what was coming", and used this mix of technology to help them win the World Series, they still cheated. Also, look at Pete Rose. When he was found guilty of betting on himself and the Cincinnatti Reds in games, they banned him from baseball for life.
I do not believe the title should be stripped, but I do believe that justice must be served, and prove the timeless phrase that cheaters never win.
I think that anyone who cheats in sports should absolutely be punished with severe consequences so that others know that they cannot do the same. In the case of the 2017 Astro’s World Series win, they should absolutely not receive the title and further action should be taken against those involved. The thing about cheating in sports where people are highly invested and work their hardest is that it ruins the game for everyone involved. Baseball to everyone in the MLB is their life and and the unfair advantage that the scheme gave the Astro’s most likely harmed many innocent hardworking baseball players by robbing them the chance to compete for the title.
Why do we watch sports? Why do we watch near superhumans perform feats that most of us could not dream of? Because we love to the limit of how far the human body can go to become great at one thing. How far human strength and ingenuity can go. And the fact of the matter is that what is considered “cheating” would allow for more exciting and extreme sports.
Look at what the Houston Astros did, they intercepted communication in between the pitcher and the dugout. There is nothing wrong with that, the game would be substantially improved if the pitcher had to come up with his plays on his own.
Similarly, look at steroids. Steroid use is already heavily prevalent in sports and outlawing it just assures that the people who do use it will be at the cream of the crop. If we allowed these PED’s in sports then the human potential would be dramatically increased and the sports would become dramatically more entertaining. The primary purpose of sports, to entertain, would be upheld and sports would be significantly improved.
Sports have rules, and rules must be upheld, no matter how detrimental. But we must look at these cheaters and realize that their disregard for the rules could make sports more interesting for all to experience.
@Anders Olsen
I realize, like you say, that sports today are mainly for entertainment, but does that really mean we should allow for cheating and the use of drugs that could potentially harm the user despite their performance enhancement? Although sports make money mainly from the number of viewers, we still have to think about the players and coaches that have spent their whole lives preparing to play as professionals. These cheaters would take away from the authenticity that makes these people and the games they play so special. Allowing for cheating would cause sports to become a cold war between all teams. Sports would simply be a race for the best drugs and espionage. For example, a game of 2k with sliders maxed out is not fun to watch, as literally every shot goes in. Everything can be predicted. I believe that cheating cannot be tolerated and that it is common sense to strip cheaters of their titles. After all, does someone really earn something if they put themselves at an unfair advantage by looking for loopholes and the easy ways out?
I think to punish sports cheaters, they should be stripped of their title. This is because cheating puts many hardworking teams at a disadvantage and putting less working into it yet still winning is wrong. It doesn’t matter how bad the cheating is because cheating at the game-no matter how little-still isn’t ethical. I agree with the author that we are in an asterisk era because so many sports stars stars cheated their way up without working for it. The cheating scandals do make the game less interesting to me because it decreases the importance of hard work and makes it more important to cheat. I do believe there is truth to the adage, “If you ain’t cheating, you ain’t trying”. “Everyone is doing it” is also not a legitimate excuse because if nobody thought like that, sports would be more interesting knowing that everyone is trying their hardest without cheating.
@Aaron Piszczek
Sports cheaters should 100% be punished and stripped of their title. Doing nothing about the issue teaches bad behavior. It teaches teams and individual players that they can get away with cheating. This is also unfair to other teams who put great amounts of effort into getting where they are, just to be out done by cheaters who don't have any consequences. What will not punishing cheaters teach all the young people that look up to these athletes?
@Aaron Piszczek
Teams and athletes that cheat most definitely need to be punished. It is completely unfair to the athletes who work their whole life to make it to where they are. The Astros do not deserve their title and should be stripped of it. If a franchise or player cheats and not penalized, what does that do? They will continue doing and everything will stay the same. Something needs to change.
While strategies in sports have become more complex as the games evolve, cheating is unethical and wrong. Cheating in sports has potential to increase drastically with new technologies. I think there should be immense punnishments for sports cheating. Millions of people invest time and money into watching sports and these athletes set examples to the world. Athletes should be held to a high standard of sportsmanship and honesty as their actions can effect not only their current team but the legacy.
I think that cheating in sports it a huge problem, especially with all the new technology and strategies being introduced. It definitely dampens my enthusiasm as a sports fan because now I have no idea whether teams are “truly” earning their W’s. I firmly believe that we are not in the “asterisk era” and it’s honestly sad. People’s careers and salaries can depend on these games and titles and if cheating is the way to get a few extra million dollars then it’s teaching young generations that it’s okay to cheat in other professions as long as you get to the top.
Take away the Astros title.
Lesson learned; precedent set.
@Dave I agree with this punishment and that it will discourage future cheating.
If a team cheats and the team ultimately wins something and gets an achievement, then they should be recognized for winning, but they should also be recognized for winning it only because they cheated. I think that the idea of the asterisk is a good idea because it will then show that they only won because they cheated.
The example of cheating that concerns me the most is the doping of racehorses. I picked that example because this cheating example doesn’t only ruin the fairness of the sports but it could also harm the horses. In the other examples they only ruin the game but the doping of racehorses could ruin the racehorses career or even life.
How should we punish sports cheaters? Should they have asterisks placed next to their achievements? Should they be stripped of their titles? Tell us what you think.
We should punish sports cheaters by suspending them from games or in extreme cases even kick them off their teams.
Yes because they should have asterisks placed next to their achievements because they cheated and had an advantage over other athletes.
They should be stripped of their titles because they are cheating and having an unfair advantage over other teams and players.
Overall, cheating in sports should be prohibited and has to be closely monitored to ensure a fair even game with good sportsmanship.
I believe that people who cheat on sports should be punished somewhat crucially. Sports should be fair for all because many people or teams work hard to win. If someone cheats in a sport it is extremely unfair to others and i believe that they should be punished by being put on probation for a while. They should not be able to practice or participate in any games for a certain amount of time.
I believe that just giving an asterisk isnt a harsh enough of a punishment and neither is a fine. A fine is just putting a price on cheating, a price that most teams could easily pay. I believe it has to be something that would really make people not want to cheat, something that would pretty much ruin their career, maybe not completely take it away (if it doesn't happen again) but substantially damage it.
I’m not a big fan of sports, but cheating in any sort of major competition should be punished with more than just an asterisk. These teams present an example to the world, and that includes the children who watch them—if a kid understood that the ‘cooler’ team had gotten to where they were through cheating, wouldn’t that be a potential gateway for them to start cheating as well? Not to mention that using drugs to augment performance can seriously hurt the users. People have said they can tell who uses drugs or not based on how much pain they’re in after a game, and that goes double for doing it to animals like racehorses who have no say in the matter. It just shouldn’t happen.
Cheating is a very big offense to anything someone does in their lifetime, but in the case of the Houston Astros the offense is elevated extremely. This is not the first time there has been cheating in sports and nor will it be the last, but it needs to end because it is ruining a great game and causing us to go into discussions like this. Back to the Astros, who had a remarkable season in 2017 without the cheating, as they are the focus of this recent scandal. So yes they cheated by using cameras to find opposing teams signs and then would relay them to the batter through various ways. Now what you may ask because the MLB has already handed out some pretty big punishments that fit the crime, but could it go further. I think it could go further towards a season or two postseason ban, where a team can’t compete for a championship, but not any further. I say this because the astros could only do this at home games and only when they were batting so teams still could compete. So for now I’d say hold vacating the World Series as the astros earned that, but if this becomes a trend some big consequences could come out of this.
I think that the only way to stop cheating is to make the punishment be extreme like, can never play again. Is this punishment is very harsh, but if you are doing what they are doing now like for example a for fine 5 million dollars that's nothing for the team. The astors flat out cheated and should have an asterisk on the last championship they won. Even tho they cheated I would say they should not be stripped of their titles because then when people look back in 200 years, they will be like “ why did no one win the mlb championship in 2019.”
I think cheating is a big problem in sports, because kids will see it on tv and think the professionals are doing it so can I. It sets a bad reputation for the next generation I personally experienced cheating in golf when my opentent lies about their score on the hole. Yes I agree that we are in asterisk era, because everyone wants to win. They think cheating is an easy way to get their goals. If your team is winning by cheating some people love it and go bild to the facts. They will say “o no those are lies we did not cheat.” If you want to fact check this ask any Patriots fan. But it really dampens they other side and makes them angry knowing they should of won but the other team cheated.
I would say all of them are very concerning to me because they are all professional athletes and they should be good enough to win without cheating.
Cheating, simply put, is bad. So, as such, those who cheat are to be punished, but in the case of cheating, punishment should be severe. This of course is due to the nature of cheating, as it being the easy, immoral, and unethical way out of a situation, because if it isn’t, those who cheat will come back and do it again. For instance, if someone cheats on a test, and they only get detention, they may cheat again. However, if said cheater has the test’s grade removed, the cheater is likely to not cheat again, as the spoils of the cheating are likely to be revoked. Here, with cheaters in sports, but especially in professional sports, punishment should revoke the spoils of the cheating, because firing certain people doesn’t fix the fact that the whole team, including its owner and overall commissioner cheated too, as they not only allowed it to occur but likely facilitated it. Neither of course does a $5,000,000 fine, because that is less than a single players average salary, and less than 0.003% of the Astros net worth of $1,800,000,000. In conclusion, While this response is mostly leveled against the Houston Astros, the lesson is still the same; a slap on the wrist won’t stop cheaters.
When it comes to sports, I’m a die hard fan for the teams I follow. As for cheating, I think it is quite possibly the most disappointing circumstance to ever discover my team to be in. I would be more disappointed to hear that my team cheated on a big win than for them to have a huge loss. Sports in and of themselves are a competition. For a proper and fair competition, the competitors are supposed to follow the same rules and participate in the same way to determine the most skilled individual or team. When athletes cheat, it is no longer an honest representation of their performance. I think any form of cheating needs to be punished based on what games, titles, and future advantages it affected. If a team cheated in a championship game, I believe that the title should be taken away. If a team or athlete gets future advantages I believe these should be taken away. It may seem extreme, but in the end, cheating is a disrespect to the sport. If there are no consequences for breaking the rules, then what is the point of the rules in the first place? Even if sports companies choose to be lenient, this begins an unwanted reputation for enforcing the rules in the future. As a spectator, I have no interest in watching a game or match that has been tampered with in any way. Ultimately, the money maker for sports companies is their following. Cheating is not a friend of these companies. If they want to see an end to cheating, there needs to be serious consequences when it is found.
While cheating should obviously not be rewarded, stripping past titles is little more than an empty gesture, as you cannot strip the fans memories of the team winning. Even if the MLB took away the Astros title, everyone in Houston would still remember them as champions. Dodgers fans and players, meanwhile, might want to see the title stripped, but it would do little to assuage the anger they feel over being cheated out of a title in their minds. The current punishments that have been given are a good start, as they affect the present and future of the Astros, instead of trying to erase the past. In my opinion, however, they need to go further and suspend each player involved in the cheating for at least one season. MLB has already established a precedent that cheating players don’t get to go into the Hall of Fame, but it would be far more effective to punish the players while they are still active. In the end, the only punishment that matters is one that will affect on-field results, and stripping a title that was already won fails to do this.
@Niko Jukic I believe that you can strip away fans' memories of their team winning. As @Olivia Tank said, a fan would be more disappointed at a team that had a big win as a result of cheating, than a big loss without it. Yes, it would have a bigger impact to punish a player that is still playing, but it would become a warning to those who choose to cheat in the future if something great from the past is taken away. You said that the only punishment that matters is one that will affect on-field results. Wouldn't a big warning to those who plan to cheat in the future change the results of a game or even a season? If the Astros had a big blaring sign that said 'DON'T CHEAT' made by a team that got their title stripped away from them, I'm sure you wouldn't find them cheating any time soon. And after this punishment, I am sure you won't find anyone else cheating for a while.
@Niko Jukic While I agree that players and those involved should be punished in a way that affects their current and future career, I believe that allowing a cheating team to retain their title is a gigantic mistake. Firstly, I refute your claim that stripping a team of their title will not affect the fans’ perception of the team, or their victory. While fans do hold pride for their team, it would be impossible, and downright ridiculous for them to claim that their team are still rightfully champions. Rather, it would likely bring them shame to have supported a team that competed unjustly, and were properly punished for it. Secondly, regardless of fan reception, an overall minor factor, removing a championship title from a team who cheated in order to secure is the lawful consequence. If a team is allowed to retain their title, therefore continuing to be recognized as champions, it will signal to other teams that cheating will not prevent them from achieving their goal, sending a horrible message to all athletes and spectators. I agree that additional consequences, that affect the present state of those involved, are necessary, but, to me, the most important concern of league officials should be to strip a cheating team of their false titles, as soon as possible.
The punishment of cheaters in sports should be no less than removing their title completely. In some cases, according to the severity of the cheating, I believe there should be even harsher punishments towards teams/players who cheat, such as paying a large fine in the Astros case. In any sport, or any situation disregarding the stakes of the award at hand, whether it’s a soccer game played in gym class, or professional athletes trying to win a world title, cheating shows dishonesty, a lack of morality, and a lack of sportsmanship. In using technology to help a team win, such as the case of the Houston Astros, they are taking away the chance of a lifetime from athletes who rightfully deserved the title. Especially in professional sports, winning is everything, and athletes devote their entire lives from a young age to get there. By winning something that’s not rightfully yours, it disregards all of the hard work the rightful winner put into making it where they are. This problem of cheating also extends past sports as well. From the recent cases of celebrities buying their children’s spots in competitive colleges, we can see how cheating affects all aspects of life. Any case of using money, people, or technology to your advantage to earn a spot that you didn’t put the effort into earning should be taken very seriously, and the wrong-doer should be punished accordingly.
I think that cheating is horrible, but it isn’t a problem in every sport. The sports and people that are involved in cheating should be punished severely because it is taking away from others. I don’t think they should have any titles stripped away from them unless they can prove that cheating was used when they won that specific title. The people who cheat should be suspended for awhile and then put under special surveillance to ensure that they will not cheat anymore. Putting more restrictions will make it harder for them but never impossible, so the extra eyes on them will make it nearly impossible for the cheaters to try and pull anything.
In my opinion, cheating is a horrible thing, but in certain circumstances it makes sense. Although, that doesn't make it right to cheat. The Houston Astros cheating scandal is one of the largest scandals unveiled in MLB. The Astros were caught stealing signs and letting their hitters know the pitch before the pitcher threw it. I think that the Astros have been punished enough though, their head coach and their GM were fired. I do not think that their title should be taken away from them, because they did not win the series at home they won is Los Angeles. Furthermore, baseball is one of the most or the most difficult sports in the world. The sport of baseball is full of failure, so even though the hitters knew what was coming they still had to make solid contact with the ball to get a hit or hit a home-run. I believe that this cheating scandal spreads to every team in the MLB. Every team has to have some way to get ahead. The game has been evolving for years the speeds of the pitches are getting faster and the athletes are getting more athletic. All in all, I believe that all teams in the MLB have cheated in some way, because the game is so hard. But at the end of the day I think the Astros deserved their title in 2017, and the title should remain theirs.
The whole game is changed when cheating becomes involved in sports. The Astros should definitely be stripped of their World Series title because they didn’t play the game by the rules. When you don’t play the game by the rules the outcome could have been so different. One might ask if the Astros would have even advanced to the playoffs if they had cheated during the regular season. I think cheating in sports is a major problem because the outcome is not the same. Scandals definitely dampen my enthusiasm as a fan because if my preferred team cheated I would not be happy with action like that. I would be extremely disappointed that I wasn’t able to watch how the game was meant to be played. The next step would be to figure out ways to end cheating in sports. How were the Astros able to get away with such a big secret like this? In the future, we need ways on how to control this before it’s exposed years after winning a World Series title.
First of all, cheating is never okay. No matter what some old-timey sports people say. It’s sad that just because technology is improving, that makes it almost acceptable. Technology shouldn’t be used as an escape route for a team who doesn’t feel like they’ve been playing their best. Instead of resorting to immature behavior, the Houston Astros should’ve dropped out of the event or been okay with not winning. Losing is more honorable than getting called out for being a cheater and losing your job.
I think the punishment would only be considered harsh if the Houston general manager and manager didn't know their team cheated, but that wasn't the case, so the punishment is fitting. No one should ever feel like they have to force anyone else to cheat. It just shows they had no faith in their team, and that in itself is sad. The Houston Astros shouldn’t have agreed to it either, so they should be suspended from playing to think about their actions.
Since they got into the situation because of their pride, there should be a televised removal of their title in front of the public. Anyone who doesn’t show up, shouldn’t be allowed to play for the league anymore. Cheating has gotten out of hand and it needs to be contained and stopped. If a team cheats, they don’t deserve their titles at all, not even with an asterisks.
Cheating has become a more relevant issue today in the world. Cheating occurs daily in various subjects, such as school and sports. Ever since the Houston Astros were caught cheating, many people have realized how troublesome it is to come up with the appropriate punishments for catching someone cheat. I believe that the Houston Astros received a reasonable punishment. In this situation it is very difficult to trace back to whose idea it was to cheat in the first place and who followed through with the foul actions. I believe that cheating is wrong and that you never truly earn what you want when you don’t work for it and put forth the effort. Overall, I see cheating unavoidable because of how tempting it can be to someone, but that does not mean it is the right thing to do. Hopefully future athletes will realize what the Astros did was wrong, and the MLB’s decision will help restore ethical behavior in baseball
As a baseball and soccer fan, I can easily compare the Astros cheating by stealing signs to when Juventus cheated to win the Italian championship in 2005 and 2006 by intimidating the referees among other things and were punished by having both titles stripped. Cheating is cheating, and if you gain a competitive edge by doing something illegal and you end up winning the Wolrd Series, Italian championship or whatever your team is trying to win, your "success" obviously shouldn't count, and therefore Astros "win" in 2017 rings hollow and must be stripped. No baseball fan will take their World Series win seriously anyway.
In the modern day cheating has become a more prevalent occurrence. In sports many instances of cheating have arose. Although some may find cheating to be justified I challenge that statement. Cheating promotes unlawful practices being used in an attempt to gain an unfair advantage in the game which can skyrocket a teams probability of success if used by the right people. I believe that cheating is a deplorable act and it should not be something that has become a common occurrence. Cheating diminishes the weight of a hard work ethic, many devoted their very lives and soul to the game they are passion about. They train, they review mistakes, learn from them, and they do whatever it takes to hone their skills to a fine point to take on the world. By making it okay for people to cheat this mentally slaps everyone who has trained hard for their spots and made their efforts meaningless. I believe when someone is caught cheating and is properly investigated a fine should be issued, compensation to those affected by this cheating ie; the teams faced by the teams with cheaters in their ranks, a public apology, a penalty to the team for the next season, and a suspension/expulsion for players depending on the severity of their acts of cheating.
Although what the astros did is completely wrong I believe there punishment for what they have concluded thus far is fair. Simply because losing their GM, their Coach, and 3 important draft picks is going to hurt them a lot down the road and with spring training among us it really puts the astros organization in shambles to find someone to lead their clubhouse, also it sets the precedent for the future and what will be done if teams attempt to cheat again in the future. Now that being said if the rumors about Bregman and Altuve wearing buzzers turns out to be true then I believe the two of them and whoever else involved should receive a lifetime ban as well as the World Series be stripped from the. I feel like a soft punishment only leads to bad backlash for the MLB making it almost certain if the MLB finds conclusive evidence of astros players wearing buzzers they will be banned and lose the World Series.
In all sports there will always be cheaters. It’s just part of the game, but when you bring light to what a cheater did you should strip them of all their titles and glory because they never earned it. They cheated their way to the top. So when I saw that that didn’t take the astros and red Sox’s titles away I was surprised. I felt like they went to easy on them and that they should not be given those World Series wins. They cheated to win and cheaters should not be rewarded.
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Whether it’s the NBA, NFL, MLB, etc their is always going to be cheaters. Athletes, staff, and even some referees cheat for multiple reasons. Some cheat for money, some cheat because they have there eyes on a title or accolades. Cheating should definitely have its consequences, but they should be fitting to the level of cheating. For example the New England Patriots have been involved in cheating scandals for a while now. They had the whole problem with the deflate gate and recently they got caught recording practice signals. They have never been properly punished that being the reason they keep doing it. I feel if the cheaters were met with the proper consequences, it would lead to less cheating as they would have learned their lesson. With the Astros, I feel their punishment was fitting. Draft picks are obviously very valuable as, well, your adding new assets that can turn out to be stars. I don’t think any team should be stripped of their title, unless the scandal was extreme. The Astros aren’t even close to that level of cheating . Anyone involved in a sports league can ultimately be a cheater. In 2007 referee of the NBA at the time, Tim Donaghy, would bet on games. He would obviously make a lot of money from this, but it angers every sports fan as he is ruining the game with his absurd calls. He serves 15 months in prison, this was a fitting punishment. Anyone involved in sports can be a cheater, but the consequences need to match to get them to stop!
I believe this punishment for the Houston Astros is reasonable but could have been slightly more harsh. Still, I do not believe the Astros should be stripped from their World Series title. Although they cheated, it only aided one aspect of the game and it is believed to be only done at their home games. The Astros still had to win games on the road, and be able to play defense and pitch well enough to win games. Cheating only helped them so much, the team had to be good enough to still win. In sports, teams will do whatever it takes to get an advantage to win, picking up on tendencies and noticing patterns to win is apart of baseball. The Astros on the other hand took it too far when they used cameras to film the other team’s catchers. The punishment costed them first and second round draft picks, $5 million, and two talented minds in their GM and Manager. This punishment seems to fit the scandal but the punishment could have been harsher, by taking away more draft picks or punishing players. The draft picks can cost the Astros their future of the organization and the fine will take away from their payroll to pay players. Good GM’s and Managers are hard to come by, so the punishment costs to Astros greatly. This era of sports leads to many cheating scandals for teams to get a competitive edge, but the only way to help stop this is to punish a team harshly enough to the point where the League uses them as an example and other teams/players would refrain from cheating to win.
In a society where cheating has become more prevalent in sports, I do believe that the Astros should have received a harsher punishment. When a whole team takes part in a cheating scandal it isn’t enough to give them a slap on the wrist and say “just don’t do it again.” Many other teams see this and although the Astros did get fined and their draft picks were taken away, their title was not revoked. This shows other teams that even though cheating may have somewhat harsh consequences, they’ll still be able to keep their title which still benefits them. No one should benefit from cheating. However, it is a difficult topic to discuss because of the different situation teams are placed in. While it is important that a team that did not earn their win the right way gets punished. There are instances where only a couple players are involved while the rest of the team is left in the dark and is not a part of the scandal. In this case it wouldn’t be fair to strip the whole team of their title or take away a win the rest of the team worked hard to earn.
In sports athletes will do what ever it take to become the best, even if that means cheating. Athletes will cheat and take the chance of being caught, but what should happen to those athletes that have taken the chance and caught. In the case of the Houston Astros, they have fired the manager, stripped of their first 2 rounds of picks, and fined a couple million dollars, but they have not been stripped of their World Series tittle. I believe that since they were caught cheating the punishment should be a lot harsher, but the team should still be able to hold the World Series title. Even though that they cheated, they were still able to win the World Series.
Cheating in all sports should be punished. The whole point of competition is to ultimately see who is better. By cheating one side is granted an unfair advantage taking away from the whole point of playing the game. The Astros deserve to be punished for their actions. I do not know exactly what an appropriate punishment would be for this action but I do know that they deserve to receive the maximum punishment. By giving the Astros the maximum punishment it will not only send a message to them but also all other sports teams to respect the game and it’s rules.
@Anthony I agree with you. What's the point in playing the game if your only going to cheat. If you can't win without cheating then you don't deserve to win. The Astros in this case scenario need to be punished and I believe any team that cheats (patriots-deflategate, racehorses, etc) should be punished for the actions to show that the organization is serious and doesn't promote cheating in any way/
I believe that all cheating in sports should be heavily reprimanded and discouraged. I also believe that in every major sport in the US there is cheating to some extent, just maybe not as bad as the Astros. But in the case of the Houston Astros I believe that they should not have their World Series title stripped. There was still an awful amount of things that has to swing there way to be in the World Series let alone win the whole thing too. From what we know, the team only used this device at home, so that means that they still had to win a lot of games on the road which is not easy to do. The second part to this is the pitching and defense side. The Astros pitchers had to no advantage given to them, which means that they had to perform exceptionally well to keep the team even in games. If their rotation consistently gave up a lot of runs, cheating could not have even gotten back into some games. With all this said I still do feel that the punishment for the team was very light. Also with cheaters in baseball being a topic again, it brings up the conversation of Pete Rose and shoeless joe Jackson and their lifetime bans from the game.
Although there is the argument that stealing signs is technically legal, just not with technology, I think anyone that says that is mistaken because they overlook the fact that baseball, like all sports, is a game. If a team in soccer was playing with 13 people and the other team only had the original 11, you wold argue that it’s cheating because they aren’t following the rules. The same goes for all sports, if you start giving advantages to either team you’re not really seeing which team is better than the other, you’re just seeing the results of an advantage. The whole point of a sport or game is to see who is better, and cheating takes away from that. Also I do believe that all of the Astros wins from their 2017 season should be stripped away, as well as their championship title, because if “cheaters never win” then why should the astros?
I believe the punishment the Houston Astros received was reasonable and maybe a tad bit lenient. The Astros broke rules that made the game no fun. When you know exactly what the pitch is going to be the chances of a professional baseball player to hit is very high. Cheating to win deserves a punishment like no other. I am glad these managers were fired, I also believe Some of these players who were involved need a lifetime ban from the league. This would send a message to anyone with the idea of cheating and hopefully change their mind for the better. Draft picks taken away is a dumb punishment in my opinion. You shouldn’t damage the future of the organization for things that not everyone was apart of. Get rid of people involved, open the organization up to young people invested in winning and get past this cheating scandal.
The Houston Astros put the integrity of baseball on the line by stealing sings. Knowing what pitch is coming before you swing the bat is one of most powerful cheating tools ever, it’s almost like knowing the other the other teams playin in say basketball or football. When you know exactly what is you become impossible to stop. Not only should the coaching staff and GM be punished but the players as well, there is video evidence in games throughout 2017 of players in the Astros dugout banging on a bucket to relay to the batter what pitch is coming. The players had a direct involvement in the cheating and easily could have stopped it. I think the MLB should go as far as stripping them of there 2017 World Series championship, cheaters should never win.
There is no other reason people cheat other than to win. So the only appropriate punishment is to disqualify them from doing so. If “cheaters never win,” why are we letting the Houston Astros?
In the end, they are still getting what they wanted: the World Series title. So in their eyes they question if it was worth it. If there was a harsher punishment for cheating, nobody would be questioning if it was worth it or not. And that’s how it should be. There should be no question in anyone’s mind if cheating is going to be worth it in the end, but treating this way will not change anything.
To a certain extent, there is truth that lies behind the old saying “if you ain’t cheating, you ain’t trying” as with the abundance of players cheating it is the only way to keep up with their peers and therefore be “trying” to succeed. I think cheating is morally so wrong, it goes against just being an honest individual who worked really hard to get where they wanted, but for the individuals who are not taking performance- enhancing drugs or not stealing signs or not finding some other media to cheat in a platform in which the majority are, they get left behind. At this time cheating can be found in any sport, and making excuses for other people is wrong— but if everyone is doing it why wouldn’t it be a reason to cheat. It’s a very bad thing to do, but if an athlete wants to get their foot through the door into the professional leagues they may need a little boost in order to match with their peers.
I have never considered cheating, I think it is wrong and it goes against my morals completely. I also am not very serious about my sports, I play them to stay in shape and have fun. I also don’t know anyone that has even tried to cheat, and at my school there are multiple athletes that are on the path to play sports at a high level and I have never heard of anyone doing anything that would go against their morals—but I know it happens.
The Houston Astros should, without a doubt, be stripped of their title as World Series Champions and possibly more. In my opinion, the punishment of 1 year suspension for the coaching staff is not enough. The situation demonstrates something clear about cheating and the use of PEDs in pro sports, the benefits drastically outweigh the consequences. Jose Altuve, middle infielder for the Astros, was suspected of wearing a buzzing wire that would relay the next pitch, essentially giving him a green light to swing away whenever a fastball was called. Batters in pro baseball are so good that it takes a split second for them to time the ball and step to load their swing. Knowing the speed and break of the ball, especially on a fastball, is arguably more beneficial than using steroids. The Astros scandal comes in the wake of several doping scandals including the Russian cyclist doping scandal uncovered by the documentary Icarus. The Russian doping scandal reflects a fundamental flaw in the way they approach sports. What is the glory in winning an Olympic gold medal all while knowing you have human growth hormone pumping through your veins making you essentially a super-athlete? People are willing to go to whatever cost it takes to achieve fame and prestige. They figure, “if your not cheating, your not trying” and the committees that enforce punishments clearly are more concerned with the public image of their sport rather than protecting its true integrity.
Throughout professional sports there is always gonna be someone “cheating” whether you know it or not. It is a major problem for sports as a whole because it deters skill, talent and a hard earned win from a measly easier win. Although I agree with the fact that the Astros deserved a punishment, I think both their general manager and manager of the team should both be banned instead of a 1 year suspension. What they did is disgraceful to the sport and there is no coming back from it. As for a team, I think that more than money, draft picks and two suspensions aren’t enough.
Cheating in sports has always been around, but since advancements in technology and more strict rules, are causing people to be even more sneakier and to find new ways to win. I think that people who do cheat should have their title taken away, or get them fired. Cheating is a big problem since everyone wants to win and their very competitive. Cheating is bound to happen in every sport but it all depends on how far the person or the team takes the cheating too. These scandals do lose a lot of fans since they can’t trust the team and it’s unfair to win if they cheated. If you ain’t cheating or if everyone’s doing it, are not legitimate excuses to why you have to cheat. You should win the game fair and square, since the people who don’t cheat, are practicing more and working harder towards their goals. To prevent cheating in sports the consequences should be more strict and harsh, and people should monitor the teams and the team players better to make sure that everyone is being fair
In response to the first question, the punishment for cheaters should be a large ban, and asterisk should be placed next to their achievement to let people know they cheated. You could take their title away but I believe that won’t do much, they already gotten attention from all of the media and the world from people who thought they initially won. In response to the second question I agree that this age can be known as the “asteriks era”, it’s sad but many people are using performance enhancing drugs or they are cheating in other ways to give them a better opportunity of winning. In response to the 4th question. I disagree with that statement, we are talking about professional athletes who are capable with their own talents to win games, they shouldn’t need to cheat to win games.
Teams should have their titles taken away and go through very harsh consequences like being fined loads of money, individuals associated/participating in the cheating getting fired, and even lifetime bans from the sport. Personally, cheating is the ultimate disrespect to the sport and to your opponent. Many of the other athletes have worked/trained their whole life to get to the point that they're at and cheating your way to that is not right. I agree that our society has become normalized to cheating but we definitely need to get away from that.
I believe that cheaters in sports should be punished to the severest extent of the law possible in their specific sport, depending on the level to which their cheating effected or improved their performances. Even if that means a complete revamp of disciplinary procedures for a certain league, if someone cheats their way to the top, they should come crashing down back to earth. In a 9-to-5 desk job, if an employee is found committing some not-so moral practices, he or she would be fired. It should be similar for professional sports. There are hundreds of thousand of true, honest professional athletes, doing it the right way. Why should these pros who work so hard have any opportunity stripped from them because someone found a loophole to exploit? Cheating is a massive problem in pro sports and should be eliminated as soon as possible.
Cheating in a professional sport should not be tolerated and therefore should be penalized heavily for the unsportsmanlike behavior. However, if the team has won championships or trophies with fair-game and without cheating should be allowed to keep those awards. Although I agree with Authorities and those who cheat should be stripped from the titles and pay a high fine for attempting to violate rules to win a unfair game.
Recently cheating has become a more relevant topic especially in the media and when it happens in High school or more importantly professional sports the cheater needs to held accountable for their actions. Ever since Lance Armstrong and the scandal involving steroids as a country we started taking ceating in sports much more seriously. Personally I believe anyone caught cheating should be stripped of any awards or titles and be banned from playing that particular sport professionally. And anyone contributing or knows of the cheating should receive the same punishment. I think that It's time that people accept their wrongdoings and face the consequences.
Personally I think their 2917 title should be stripped because the whole game was rigged and the other team had an unfair disadvantage, if they wouldn’t have cheated who knows what the outcome of the game would be, I don’t think they deserve it.
should we punish sports cheaters? Yes I think we should, teams who cheat for the title should for sure get their title taken away. It’s not fair for all players in the league. Professional players are in league because they want to be the best. And by showing that it would include winning the title and many other awards. Having someone who comes by taking that away from them already hurts. But now you add in the cheating to these amazing players who work hard all their life to get to this point is disrespectful.
Teams should have the title taken away if they get caught cheating in a final. The disrespect it has towards the opponent is very serious and there needs to be more consequences. The whole coaching staff should be investigated and or fired. The athletes have worked their entire lives to be at where they are and if cheating is how they win they shouldn't be in professional sports.
How should we punish sports cheaters? Should they have asterisks placed next to their achievements? Should they be stripped of their titles? Tell us what you think.
I think that sports cheaters should be punished by having them take a break from playing for 1.5 months so they should know not to do it again. I also think that 1/20 of their salary should be taken away.
Is there truth to the adage, “If you ain’t cheating, you ain’t trying”? Is “everyone is doing it” a legitimate excuse? Have you ever considered cheating in a sport you were playing?
I disagree with the adage because you only cheat as an easier way to get somewhere without trying so I think that if you don’t cheat you are really trying. If everyone is doing it then everyone who is doing it should be punished. I never have and never will consider cheating in a sport
I believe that cheating in sports is a big problem especially when the players are getting paid for playing . When they are ruining the complete reason of playing the sport. Also when they are getting paid more to cheat than playing normal.
I think cheaters should not be able to play competitive baseball anymore. They were so competitive that they were willing to risk it all by cheating. They got caught so now they should have to pay the penalty. I think asterisks are also a good idea.
I think if you are caught cheating in a specific game they should strip your stats and achievements from that specific game only. If the athlete continues to cheat, the punishment should be more severe. If an athlete fails a drug test that affects their performance they should be suspended until they complete rehab.
@Koda
If they were caught cheating in one game, who’s to say they didn’t cheat in others up to that point? Professional athletes are adults and need real consequences for their actions. To discourage others from cheating, they should be kicked off the team or something. If they thought a game was important enough to cheat in it, there should be a consequence for cheating that’s worse than losing. If all they get is a slap on the wrist, there’s no real reason for them to play the game by someone else’s rules.
@Koda If they get caught in one game who knows how many times they have cheated. There is no point in taking that games stats away because the game is already over. There have probably been teams that cheat the whole season so what are you gonna do erase that whole season as if they never played. If teams or players get caught more than once they should be suspended without pay and face possible expulsion from the league. They should not need to go to drug rehab if they fail a drug test, that would take months and could end their season.
@Elliot Wells I agree with your point that athletes are adults and need real consequences for cheating. I also agree with your point that the consequences should be enough to discourage others from cheating.
However, I don´t think proving that an athlete has cheated clarifies that they have cheated in the past or will continue to cheat in the future. Not to mention that the organization is not just punishing that player. Other people are affected by it as well.
I think if we catch someone cheating, we should strip them of the medals and trophies they won while cheating and should place asterisks next to them. I think cheating in sports is becoming more of an issue as technology is making it very tempting for people to cheat, helping us achieve the name “asterisk era”. I’ve never been a fan of sports in general, but if I were, I think it wouldn’t affect me as long as the athlete I like hasn’t been caught cheating. I think the horse that ran to Triple Crown concerns me the most because innocent animals are being targeted for the purpose of people’s selfish desires to win. It’s not fair because the animals are incapable of protesting. There is no truth to the adage because cheating takes just as much effort as actually practicing to get better, so why even cheat? “Everyone is doing it” is not a legitimate excuse because if everyone was jumping off a cliff, would you be in line to do that? I’ve never considered cheating in my sport because I’m just a high schooler who can’t get my hands on doping chemicals (not like I would if I could). I don’t think there is ever a way to prevent cheating because humans are smart and will find new and tricky ways to cheat. If I were the commissioner of Major League Baseball, I would strip the Astro’s of their World Series title and fine everyone included in the scandal. To prevent, I’d honestly just set up a ton of cameras and place spies in the crowd to see if they saw something suspicious.
@Belle For sports cheaters, I suppose the best way to deal with them is to fire or get rid of everyone involved. In sports anyone can be replaced, and there can even be replacements that are better than the old ones that don’t need to cheat in order to win. Ripping a team from its’ titles however seems too harsh because they could have won them fair and square, and have cheated due to a rough patch in a season. Cheating is bound to happen in every sport, but depending on the importance of the sport, cheating could be seem as worse for certain ones.
Throughout sports, cheating has been a prevalent factor in trying to get the edge on your opponent. Whether it’s doping in the Olympics or stealing signs in baseball, cheating is a major problem that professional sports face. Dispite punishments that leagues and teams have for cheating, it is still so popular amount athletes and teams. I think this means we should make the punishment for cheating a lot more severe. For example when an NFL or MLB player is caught for doping, they are often only suspended for part of a year. I think an player should be be banned for at least a year and teams should be stripped of any winnings if they cheated.
@Ben McGrath cheating is not ok i think cheaters are losers
For sports cheaters, I suppose the best way to deal with them is to fire or get rid of everyone involved. In sports anyone can be replaced, and there can even be replacements that are better than the old ones that don’t need to cheat in order to win. Ripping a team from its’ titles however seems too harsh because they could have won them fair and square, and have cheated due to a rough patch in a season. Cheating is bound to happen in every sport, but depending on the importance of the sport, cheating could be seem as worse for certain ones. I think that the sign stealing scandal was the worst because basically the whole team was involved in it rather than just one or a couple of people, and it could have drastically changed the games. Everyone cheating however is not an excuse to cheat because playing with integrity is always going to be the best decision. And if one were to lose against cheaters, then in reality you did win because you have the moral high-ground. Overall cheating is somewhat inevitable and I don’t see a way to end it, but that doesn’t mean that it is the right thing to do.
Cheating in professional sports should be addressed by penalizing players mainly through taking a required hiatus from a sport, rather than removing previous titles that were rightfully earned by players, without cheating. While I agree that cheating should be heavily looked down upon, I think it is fair to say that, as human beings, everyone has made some bad decisions in their lives, which should be tolerated. Additionally, poor decisions might be made, by athletes, if they are under pressure to do well. Thus, instead of taking away an athlete’s job, athletes should have opportunities to redeem themselves later in their career.
I disagree with the statement,”If you ain’t cheating, you ain’t trying” because the meaning of sports, to me, is to test your own physical and mental capabilities in a healthy competition. Hence, sports are not meant to test how well you can cheat at something, but they are meant to test your own strengths.
I believe that cheating has been a major problem in sports. However, we have not enforced clear rules until recently. Cheating has recently become more prevalent. This is because the consequences of cheating are relatively low. I think that the only way to prevent cheating is to strip teams or individuals from titles. This also prevents the mindset that "everyone is doing it", as cheating produces no different outcome. Cheating in sports is an important issue because it removes the challenging aspect of the sport, as it undermines the idea that hard work is the way to achieve success. This removes the idea of competition as a whole, dampening a sports fan's enthusiasm.
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I do not think that all sports crimes should be punished in the same way, and in the same consequences. For example, Horse racing is different than the other two “crimes” because of how and to what intensity they did it. The watching other teams are not horrible, but I think that It should be considered cheating because they used someone out of the team to make a strategy. If this was done by someone in the team, It would have been a different story and I believe should only be punished by having it on a permanent record.
The Horse racing cheating event was especially bad because the drugs are not fair game in any human sports, so why should it with horses? People get in trouble with things like steroids, and I think horse trainers should be punished as well. It is different because of drugs versus strategy.
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Cheating has become a big problem in sports over recent years, leading to the beginning of the “asterisk era” in which teams caught cheating are labeled as such. While saver also teams have been caught, it is worth thinking about how many teams and players have probably gotten away with cheating throughout the years. After reading this article, I thought the sign stealing scandal was the most notable because it shows an example of the possible misuses of technology in the sports world. I am not knowledgeable enough in the world of sports to be able to properly judge how to handle this situation or prevent future scandals. But as a semi-interested fan, knowing that people are cheating, is not interesting to me and reduces the appeal of the game. Athletes can be trying without trying, contradictory to the adage referred to in the article, thus “everyone is doing it” isn’t a legitimate excuse and if individual athletes are caught cheating, then they should be prohibited from competing in an official capacity again and have an asterisk next to their achievement. If a group or entire team is caught cheating, they should have an asterisk next to their title so that everybody else knows they did not win fairly. There should also be an official investigation into the team and affiliated parties in order to figure out who was at the heart of the operation so that they get punished most severely.
Cheating in professional sports is like gambling in my opinion, with high risk and high reward. I feel as though if you cheat and get away with it in the moment, then even if the review later shows you were cheating, there should be no penalty. If you got away with it, then that is that. However, the punishment for being caught in the act of cheating or before everything is set in stone should be much more severe. Players caught cheating should be personally removed from professional athletics and coaches should face a similar punishment if they lead the team in a similar scandal to the Astro’s sign-stealing. From this perspective it is easy to see how adages like “if you ain’t cheating, you ain't trying” may have come to flourish. With such a competitive field in the entertainment business, being the star of the show may be worth pulling a few strings. In the past many people got away with it more easily. Only now with modern technology, can many of these shams see the light of justice. Still, the danger to losing everything may never be enough to ward of the most greedy of athletes.
Putting asterisks next to a sports team’s achievement is a good idea. It would be good if used in statistics, like charts and graphs. It’d help everything stay organized. I don’t here about much cheating into today’s sports news. The last time I heard of cheating in sports was when Tom Brady deflated a football. I also do not agree with the statement “If you ain’t cheating, you ain’t trying.” Cheating is supposed to let you not have to try. If you ARE cheating, you ain’t trying. I’d never take that as a legitimate excuse.
@Leonardo Gagliardi I agree with the idea of an asterisks next to statistics if there are facts proving that they are cheating. I don´t think it is fair if they are only accused of cheating and there is no proof.
Sports cheaters, especially teams, should have their titles revoked without hesitation. The integrity of of sports has and will only degrade with new cases of cheating. It is so easy to acquire steroids this day in age, and these athletes have money to spend. The influence that sports teams have on their cities is monumental. Of the team does good, the city feels pride to live there, but if the team performs bad, or worse cheats, the shame that the team brings to the city is equal to the magnitude that the team brings upon itself. If a team is caught cheating, it should not be taken with a grain of salt, they bring dishonor to the sport and everyone they stand for.
As someone who doesn’t know (or care) much about sports, I don’t understand a lot about the issue at hand. However, cheating should not be condoned anywhere, and definitely not in sports. I think sport cheaters should get an asterisk next to their names because they do not deserve the title. There is also a level of shame being distinguished from all the other players. Although I am rather clueless about sports, I think cheating is a big problem in sports. Sports is about skill and perseverance, and cheating just throws all of that away.
I believe that the Astros should be stripped of their title. If people act inappropriately and no one punishes them it conveys the message that it is okay to cheat. People need to be informed that it is not okay to cheat. Because the MLB’s hasn’t severely punished the Astros, the Red Socks may have decided to cheated in 2018. The Red Socks haven’t been severely punished for cheating. I now wonder if any other teams will decide that it is okay to cheat. Baseball has turned into a game of who can cheat in the stealthiest and most efficient way. To stop that from happening, I think it is only fair to strip teams who have cheated of their titles.
I think sports cheaters should be punished by having their careers suspended or ended. If a baseball player makes it all the way to the MLB and start cheating than they shouldn’t be allowed to stay in the MLB, because there are tons of honest players in the minor leagues who would do just as well in the Major League, and fans would be able to watch honest games.
Cheating is a huge problem in sports. With modern technology there are more and more ways to cheat and less ways to get caught. I don’t think that we are in the “asterisk era” of cheating because technology will get more advanced and I think that unless something is done cheating will just get more and more common. I normally enjoy watching baseball, but because of all the cheating it feels like I can’t be sure that the games I watch are fair.
I think cheating has always been a major problem in sports, but only recently have we been cracking down on it. We have barred olympians from competing due to doping, suspended athletes, but I believe we have failed to address some of the biggest cheating scandals. I think we need to take more serious actions, as athletes are getting payed millions and cheating should be no tolerance. One count of cheating should be a suspension and and asterisks put next to their names for any records they have. A second time should be a ban from the sport and their names removed from any record set. I think if we have a more strict policy on cheating it will less likely happen. And if there are cases were multiple people are cheating, possibly a whole team, an investigation should be done. In general we just need to be a lot more strict and take these cases more seriously.
There may be a little truth to “if you ain’t cheating, you ain’t trying”, because if you’re trying really hard to find ways to win, you may come up with something that involves cheating, but you can also be trying without cheating. So just because you can cheat doesn’t mean you should, and you can try really hard without cheating at all. Just because everyone’s cheating, doesn’t make it ok for you to also cheat. I don’t play many sports, but when I do play sports, I sometimes think of a way I could cheat, but I never follow through.
I think sports cheaters should be warned, given a second and maybe a third chance, and then if they cheat more than three times they should be stripped of their titles. In my opinion, cheating in sports is a huge problem that really takes the fun out of the game, not just in physical activities but in other games too (i.e. board games, card games, video games). I myself do not really take interest in sports-related things, but if I were a fan I would take a lot less interest in anything involving cheating since the players who are cheating are not doing the same thing as the opposing side and therefore it's not a fair fight. Some people think "everyone is doing it" is a reasonable response, but if everyone is doing it, what even is the point of playing the game if everyone is cheating? Or, they could just get rid of the sports where "everyone is doing it" altogether and create new sports where the ways people were cheating are included and allowed in the rules.
I think to punish sports cheaters, they should be stripped of their title. This is because cheating puts many hardworking teams at a disadvantage and putting less working into it yet still winning is wrong. It doesn’t matter how bad the cheating is because cheating at the game-no matter how little-still isn’t ethical. I agree with the author that we are in an asterisk era because so many sports stars stars cheated their way up without working for it. The cheating scandals do make the game less interesting to me because it decreases the importance of hard work and makes it more important to cheat. I do believe there is truth to the adage, “If you ain’t cheating, you ain’t trying”. “Everyone is doing it” is also not a legitimate excuse because if nobody thought like that, sports would be more interesting knowing that everyone is trying their hardest without cheating.
In regards to the Astros game, I believe what they did was unfair. The fact that they had to hire someone to gain the statistics of the game is ridiculous. I would totally understand if the Astros reflected off the other teams’ capabilities, and actually practiced harder to meet up with their standards, however, using someone to calculate the statistics of the game is like the lazy way out of practicing. Using the excuse, “Everyone is doing it,” in response to the alleged cheating is ridiculous. That by no means makes what the Astros did okay. I’m glad the Astros were forced to pay a fine of five million dollars, it’s what they deserve.
I believe that cheaters in major league sports should be punished. If these players or coaches aren’t punished they are just gonna continue to cheat and the game will no longer be any fun to watch or play. It would also be very hypocritical for these players to not be punished as today’s society mentality is that cheaters never win and “if you cheat, you’re not trying hard enough”. I believe putting and asterisk or removing player/coaches depending on the severity if a good idea. Cheaters should be punished to some extent because these bad choices will have consequences.
The severity of the "cheating" is something I believe needs to be taken into account when handing out punishments. Stripping someone of a title is quite extreme and that has to be taken in very serious consideration before going through with a punishment to that degree. The "asterisk era" is not upon us, people take risks to get the upper hand but not everyone has to cheat to show they are trying. Deflating balls or using a garbage can to relay messages does not come close to doping a horse so you can win more money. The horse has no control of what it's owner can give it. Cheating is hard to prevent because of all the new possibilities but maintaining a respectful and honorable way of going about the game can help prevent further cheating. If I were the commissioner of the MLB, I would fine the Astro's along with suspensions and to prevent this from happening again, I would enforce a greater punishment such as lifetime banning.
I think cheating in sports is a major issue because it can affect the chances of winning for many teams. The cheating team will have an advantage, which does not make it fair. I agree with the author that we are now in the “asterisk era” because so many teams or individual players have cheated that an asterisk is needed next to their name. Barry Bonds is the all time home run leader in the MLB, with 762, but he used steroids and he has a permanent asterisk next to his name. These scandals do not make the game less interesting to me, but I still do not think cheating is alright to do.
I think cheating is a huge problem in sports, there are so many scandals recently in sports that it’s hard to think of an era where sports didn’t have cheaters. For example, it took a couple of years for the public to finally start seeing sports stars as cheater, for example Barry Bonds abusing steroids, baseball fans were shocked back then but now it’s the norm to hear that a player uses steroids. I do agree that we have now entered an era where cheating happens every day, there’s so many examples of huge sports figures cheating, it is now hard to believe they achieved anything without doing it. It scares me to be in this era because I love sports, and I don’t want upsets, championships, and the incredible record breaking to stop, but it sadness me that so many sports stars have had to go to cheating to succeed in their respective sports career.
I’m still excited and hyped about sports but not as much as before, hopefully we can regain fairness and sportsmanship to be able to enjoy and play sports as they should be played.
I think that we should punish sports cheaters by stripping them of their titles, and if the cheating is bad enough, removing them from the league that they play in. I think that there might be a little truth to the adage, “If you ain’t cheating, you ain’t trying”. But, “everyone is doing it” is not a legitimate excuse. Just because a lot of people are doing something, doesn’t make that thing right.
Cheating deserves harsh punishments. Everybody has the potential to win, and if you cheat, that just means you don’t recognize it. Even if cheating leads you to victory, all you got out of it is the title. Congrats! But, look at everything you just lost. Your fans. Your dignity. Your respect. Your name. Your job. Eventually that title will be meaningless and lost, and you’ll ask yourself; Was it worth it? No! Think about all the people that you just ruined it for, including yourself. Think about everybody who worked so hard to get to the top, and you undeservingly took the opportunity from them. Think about how much it meant to them, and how little it obviously meant to you. Now tell me that they don’t deserve a harsh punishment.
I agree with Ann Skeet. The Houston Astros deserve to be stripped of their title. The adage should be “If you cheat, you’re not trying hard enough.” Winning by cheating isn’t really a win. It just makes you the biggest loser out there, so what’s the point of letting them keep their title? Where’s the respect for all the other teams and the sport itself? What is this teaching people? The article says that most people rationalize cheating by saying, “Everyone else is doing it too.” Okay, and? Everybody knows cheating isn’t okay. Everybody knows they don’t want other people to cheat against them. So I don’t understand why it’s practically being encouraged. If there’s barely a punishment, of course people will cheat.
@Shivani Patel I completely agree with your opinions about this situation. Sure, you can win by cheating, but are you really winning? For me, if a team that I was on were cheating in a game I would not feel excited. I would just feel guilty and that truly I didn't deserve the title that I "won". Teams that cheat are denying other players a fair game that is purely based on skill. The Astros do deserve to have their title stripped. They did not win fairly, therefore should not have the privilege of holding the title. I also agree that if there is not solid punishment for cheating, then more teams will want to cheat because there would be no punishment.
A sports cheater should definitely be punished in my opinion. I think stripping them of the titles they won, by cheating, is the most fair. It should also be announced to the public, as the athlete publicly cheated, so they deserve a public consequence. Placing asterisks next to their achievements isn’t the best idea to me because if a person who doesn’t normally follow up on sports, sees the asterisks, they would probably be confused. This is why I feel it is best to just take away the titles they won through cheating.
Cheating in sports is not something I think should be condoned, regardless of the excuse “everyone is doing it”. Using that excuse is less like jumping on the bandwagon and more a contribution to a snowballing use of cheating as more and more teams decide to lay their morals aside to succeed. Cheaters should be punished for what they do and I think the only way to truly combat the issue is by removing their winning titles. If this does not happen, teams will continue to cheat because their goal is still being achieved, no matter the “asterisk” placed next to their name. To me, the most concerning cheating scandal is the Astros’ because it should have been easiet to catch, especially by people sitting near the dugout during games. There should have been a pattern with people staring at a TV and then banging on a trash can. On the other hand, “Deflategate” may have been easier to hide, as well as the racehorse doping. What bothers me the most is how many bystanders may have passed by the Astros’ dugout, noticed the cheating, and said nothing.
Cheating is something you should not do anywhere even if it is sports. It is crazy how someone could just say “ everyone is doing it ” and not even consider how hard it was for someone to get to where they are now. The adage “If you ain’t cheating, you ain’t trying” made by Joe Montana has no truth to it. The word “trying” means to make an attempt or effort to do something, not act dishonestly or unfairly in order to gain an advantage. Cheating is an extremely selfish act and to do it where many people are watching is basically encouraging the civilians to do the same. The Houston Astros were stripped of top draft and will have to pay a large fine. That is a pretty good punishment as long as they do not attempt to cheat again.
I don’t believe that there is any truth to these adages. If a team ever has to cheat, it is because they are insecure about their ability and feel the need to have to win, but can’t do it without a “little boost”. People make up excuses to cheat just so they don’t feel bad when they do it. Even if everybody else is doing it, doesn’t mean that you should. If you know your team can succeed without having to cheat, then there’s no point in doing so. I have never thought about cheating because I know there could be a possible consequence.
I don’t really care much for sports, so I didn’t hear about the Astros’ cheating. And even when I did hear about this news, I didn’t really care. But if you ask me, I don’t think any type of cheating in whatever scenario it is, is good. In this case, the cheating happened in sports. I think that the idea of putting an asterisk next to their achievements is a good punishment. These sports players, play these sports as a career so if you were to strip them of their title, they probably wouldn’t be able to make any money. These players are regular people like us, so if you were to stop their form of income, that’s pretty cruel. So if we were to just put an asterisk in front of their achievements, they ould still play the sport they do, but probably, their popularity will go down. That will teach them a lesson and we can hope that they don’t ever cheat again.
I think that you should punish sports cheaters by just putting an asterisk next to their achievement, because it was not like the Astros were using technology that is not already used, such as a megatron or the box on tv that shows the speed of the pitch. I feel it was just strategy that one team decided to use. They shouldn’t be stripped of their title because they still one it through skill if you think about it. The players still had to hit home runs in order to win. So I think the best way to deal with cheaters is to put an asterisk next to the achievement so it is up to the people to decide if they think the Astros won the World series.
I think for me at least, the most scandalous of the three is Tom brady deflating the ball. Tom Brady is a well known athlete and people look up to him, especially little kids who think of him as a sports hero. Little kids may think of cheating as not that bad, particularly the kids who look up to Brady as a role model. This incident clearly reduced the amount of respect people have for him. Cheating in sports or at anything is unacceptable and there should be consequences.
In my opinion the cheating on the Houston Astros part should cause them to be stripped of their title because if there is only suspension then players and coaches will continue to cheat to win but if you take away their title there will have been no point to cheating in the first place. After the Patriots cheated because they kept their title other teams such as the Astros realized that if they cheat and win even if they are caught the win will still count to their record. Cheating is a huge problem and the only way to minimize it is to have titles stripped away. These scandals dampen my enthusiasm as a fan because after all that has happened it makes me wonder, Is this true skill or is this all a scam? Though these are all powerful cheating scandals I think the Astros cheating scandal had the largest impact because this was the final game that would decide who the champion of the MLB was and in the final game a scandal like this changes the course of baseball history. There is no truth to the adage "if you ain't cheating, you ain't trying" because if you cheat you have to try less than you would if you played an honest game. "Everyone's doing it." is jot a legitimate excuse because if everyone jumped off a bridge, would you do it too? I have considered cheating when playing video games with my brother. If I was the commissioner of the MLB I would strip the Astros of their title.
I don’t think there is truth to the adage, “If you ain’t cheating, you ain’t trying” because those who really are trying and are working hard don’t need to cheat. The fact that “everyone is doing it” is never a legitimate excuse; just because other people are doing something wrong doesn’t make it any more right for you to do it too. For punishment, I think it would be reasonable to strip cheaters of their titles because if they cheated then they didn’t really earn the achievement. The doping of racehorses concerns me the most because it represents the use of drugs in the athletic world.
I believe that we should punish sports cheaters by suspending them from the game, because many things involved in this situation are wrong. For the other team that is actually trying and loses is very disappointing, since the team that cheated didn't really win. These people/teams that are cheating SHOULD get stripped from their titles for multiple reasons. They don't deserve that name of honor, because they are dishonest and liars. Just like cheating on tests these people don't deserve what they recieve. Getting suspended from the game shouldn't be the only punishment, other things such as being suspended for the season, paying a fine, or whoever insinuated the cheating should get fired (coaches.) There should have asterisks next to their achievements to show that they did something wrong and untruthful. People may disagree by saying it was a mistake and a one time thing, but cheaters can control what they do. Cheaters never prosper, but dedication and hardwork will get you anywhere.
I think that sports cheaters should be punished by things like suspensions, fines, and taking away titles- as they do not truly deserve those titles. It may be that cheating is more of a problem now days, or it’s just that we hear about it more. The most concerning cheating examples would be the doping examples, as doping can be harmful to one’s health. Just because everyone else is cheating, does not mean it is okay and rather people should try to break that cycle and make the cheating come to an end. A good way to prevent cheating is to make cheating not worth it. Using the Astros’ example, taking away their title and suspending and fining them makes all the work they went through to cheat worthless.
This article starts off saying that on Jan 13 the Major League Baseball announced that the Houston Astros had cheated during the regular season and playoffs of their World Series-winning 2017 season. It then gives more examples of different times people/teams have cheated to try to win, like the Russian Olympic Committee managed to get more medals in 2014 due to the fact that they had doping experts work with Russia’s intelligence services to swap out urine for testing. I think we should punish sports cheaters by stripping them of the titles, because this is something that is important to players and their teams. They are cheating for these titles, so if the main thing they cheated for was taken away and they suffered heavily from it they would most likely decide not to cheat anymore. Fining usually doesn’t end up bothering teams or players much, especially if they make a lot of money. The article mentions Brady being suspended for four games, and the franchise was fined $1 million and docked two draft picks for using deflated balls in Super Bowl XLIX. But even though all this happened, the Patriots were still trying to cheat. This shows that things like fines and suspensions don’t do much in terms of deterring people from cheating, and they will continue to cheat unless they get a major consequence, like stripping them of their titles.
Yes, I do believe that cheating sports teams should be punished. Reason being, if people keep getting away with cheating, then sports will fall apart. I feel like even though there can be loop holes that can be considered technically "not cheating", being honest about the game and playing it how it was intended to play makes the game so much more fun and so much more valuable. If people keep cheating, the fun of the game will be lost. If teams get away with and continue to cheat, will sports even be sports anymore? Or just a game of who can get around the rules the best?
Cheating is never okay. I do not think the punishment was too harsh. The quote " If you ain't cheating, you ain't trying." I disagree. Trying and cheating are two different things. It is also unfair and the Huston Astros were taking the easy way out.
@Diana Bedden I agree cheating is never okay to do and that the punishment wasnt too harsh. Trying you actually do what you are supposed to do right. It is kind of like having the high ground in fortnite. Cheating is like using auto-aim or something
I think that sports cheaters by punished by not being able to play for a long period of time, maybe 1/5 or 1/6 of a season. I also think the sports cheaters should be fined with a large amount. I do not believe that sports cheaters should be stripped of their titles because everyone makes mistakes in their life, it is what you learned from it and how you will apply it further on. Professional athletes should know that they are huge inspirations and models to young children all around the world. Their actions can show young children what they should do in order to be like one of the pros. If children see one of their favorite professional athletes cheating, it could make them think that it is alright for them t cheat. If a professional athlete is caught cheating, he or she should have huge consequences to stop them from cheating again.
We should definitely punish sports cheaters by removing them of their title. This is a result of not playing in a way that is fair to the opponents. One would have an advantage. While this may be true, many others would argue that the title should not be removed as through careful study and observation, it could be possible that the cheating team was on track to win, even if they did not cheat. This situation is rare, however. Punishment should include not being able to compete in the sport for a period of time, because in that gap, players will realize the value of their sport and the hard work that other teams put into it to get where they are. They could use that time to reflect upon how they can improve, so that cheating is not even an option. The doping of racehorses concerned me the most. It is hard to think that the cheating of humans has extended to a point where we are affecting animals. It is obvious to say, but animals cannot speak but still have a mind and can feel things, no matter how inferior we consider them to be. Where only human-involved cheating scandals occur, there are solutions, such as removing a title as mentioned. Beyond that, we are making choices that have a long-term impact, which is horrible.
I do slightly agree there is some truth to the statement “if you ain’t cheating, you ain't trying” because the person or group is “trying” to win with their cheating. I think that the reason someone would want to cheat is to achieve something that they want, like getting a good grade on their test, or winning a game. On the other hand, cheating could also be seen as the “easy way out” and that could make it look like the person or people doing the cheating are slacking and finding an easier way to do something. I also think that the excuse “everyone else is doing it” isn't a good excuse because you should take responsibility for doing something wrong instead of pointing out that everyone is doing it so it should be ok to do, I think that this statement could be seen as “if everyone was jumping off of a cliff, would you?” which also shows this. I have cheated in things before but not in a sport or anything major like a test, but I have cheated in small things like card games because i wanted to win that game, but that is still cheating.
We continue to see constant controversy in the world of sports, and again, the situation comes up again. Cheating seems to be a major issue in professional sports, and continues to get worse. In my opinion, I believe there needs to be harsh consequences for those who chose to cheat. It is the choice part that deserves consequences. These teams and athletes are not being forced to cheat, they are choosing to, and that is where I draw the line. Suspension is a good way to deal with cheating, by suspending a player for a certain amount of time. I also think that teams who cheat and win championships should have their championship taken away.
@Zach Bertrand
Hi, Zach,
I recently heard about the Astros’ attempt to cheat in the 2017 World Series, and I was honestly shocked. I thought that the sole reason for the Astros’ success existed as the abilities of high-caliber players, such as José Altuve and George Springer. I completely agree with your statements regarding controversy in professional sports, and I believe that cheating can manifest into various methods commonly utilized by athletes and team representatives. Performance enhancing drugs, technological advancements, and bribery have unfortunately become prominent in the sports world. I also consider this championship void, and I support suspensions of those associated with cheating in this situation. Even if the members of the ball club evidently desired to capture that elusive banner, I do not vouch for cheating in any way.
I believe that Sports Cheaters should be punished by not being able to play again for a certain period of time, as well as receiving a massive fine. Professional athletes are models to young children aspiring to make it to the pros, so therefore they should be setting a good example. If children see their favorite sports stars cheating, why would they not feel that it is okay for them to cheat as well?
We should punish sports cheaters by suspending their chance of playing that next year. Yes or they should be striped of the win.
I think cheating is a huge problem because it is everywhere everyone wants to win so they will do anything. Yes I think we are because people are making so much money they will do anything. Money is the root of all evil. No if anything they drive it by making me not like that team anymore.
I think I’m mixed between all of them but if anything doping the horses because that could create problems for the horse.
I think that cheating teams should definitely be stripped of their titles. That’s what would really get through to them. Baseball organizations make hundreds of millions of dollars every year, so a little 5 million dollar fine isn’t going to make them learn their lesson. I agree that cheating has become more and more common as technology has advanced, and it really is pretty discouraging as a fan. It’s completely unnecessary. The Astros were good enough in 2017 to win the World Series without even cheating. As were the patriots. It’s strange to me that it’s the dominant teams who are the ones cheating, and not the bad teams who are struggling. I would think that the bad teams would have more desire to cheat than the good ones who have the talent to win titles without even cheating. The Astro’s scandal disappoints me the most, because as a fellow Texan, it kind of puts a bad image on our state. When the Astros won, everyone across the state of Texas was super excited about it, and now it means nothing. I think to prevent cheating, we need to increase the punishments given to the cheaters. We need to take away the cheating team’s championships, fire everyone involved, and increase the fines if we really want to get through to the cheaters.
Cheating in sports has gone on since the beginning of time. Rather than wanting to win the correct way, athletes and coaches would rather cheat to win. While this is occurring in the major leagues, it is showing younger athletes this is acceptable, rather than radiating role model aspects. The latest scandal involves the Houston Astros scamming their way into the MLB championship. Pitching signs were transferred to the opposing team, allowing them to know what kind of pitch is coming at them before the ball is actually thrown. This causes a big advantage, possibly being the reason they advanced so far. However, as this is illegal, they must endure repercussions. I believe their consequence is an appropriate punishment. Possibly since the team is being fined, stripped of their first two picks for the following years, having coaching staff fired, and lastly being known as cheaters, they will learn to play fair for the following years.
I believe with all the cheating scandals coming out week after week it shows the truth in the phrase, ‘If you aren’t cheating, you aren’t trying.” I feel with today's level of athletes that are trying to get ahead is not always done the right way. I feel like everyone is out there cheating in one way or another. After the DeflateGate incident with the New England Patriots; multiple NFL teams came forward and said that they also deflated footballs, but it just wasn’t well known. I feel like everyone is out there cheating, but it just becomes known with these “dynasty” teams that possibly only slip up once. Everyone is looking for an advantage in any way possible, and the teams that are being caught are the ones doing it the best. I think in the years to come we will see the asterisk era come to an end and the professional leagues come to grips with the fact that you can never stop all cheating. There are just some bad people that make it to the top, and can’t help but try to get to the next level. The reward is a lot greater than the risk when you see everyone else is doing it.
As a high school athlete, you often hear murmurs of how other teams nearby are cheating and doing immoral things in order to win or have a good season. Cheating in today's society is becoming more prevalent and the repercussions aren't typically enough to stop people and teams from repeating their mistakes. In my opinion, the pressures of athletes and teams to perform well pushes people to go out of their way and use methods to help them succeed. However, it seems like most professional athletes and teams use at least one cheating method to help themselves perform better, and sadly those behaviors aren't going to change until strict monitoring and strict consequences are set in place. Why quit cheating when you can still keep your title, awards, and only have to pay a small fine? Society needs to stop making excuses for teams and players who cheat to win and instead bring the competitiveness that resides in all of the hearts of Americans out in a clean and fair way.
Cheating becoming more popular despite restrictions truly says something about the punishments that are being given out to them: they're not enough. Despite Houston cheating, he still retained their title as the 2017 World Series champion, and that seems less than fair to me. Even if worsening the punishments that are given to the players does not deter all players completely, I still think it will help to steer many away from this. Stripping the players of their titles seems like the most fitting and appropriate choice, and although it may negatively affect those supporting them, if stopping cheating is the desired outcome, then more must be done to deter and punish those who cheat. There is definitely no truth to the adage, "If you ain't cheating, you ain't trying". In fact I would argue that it's the other way around. If you're cheating, you're not trying at all, and no excuses should be made for those who cheat in these sports.
I believe that all cheating should be punished, especially when that player/team is in the pros. In my opinion, immediately after finding solid evidence that the Astros did in fact cheat, their World Series title should be stripped from them. These players are able to tell how fast a pitch will be and where it will be going, making the other team completely useless.
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I think a good way to punish sports cheaters would be to have them automatically lose whatever game they were playing when they cheated. It is not fair to everyone else who is playing by the rules when you cheat. There definitely should be asterisks next to their name when they cheat because it shows that they did not earn this fully by hard w0rk and dedication, they needed to cheat because they did not think they were good enough. I do not think they should be stripped of their titles however because they still did earn it and there would be an asterisk showing that they did not earn it completely fair.
The Astros were recording other players pitches using technology, I don’t think that’s a really bad thing. But, if they were going to do that, then they should have made it public because after hiding the fact that they recorded other players pitches made it seem like they were doing something way worse. Although, I do think that it's fair for them to face the consequences because other players make money out of these games and the Astros technically made more money by cheating and I don’t think that is fair at all.
As a casual sports fan, I only pay attention to one sport and team, and loosely root for other teams in different sports whenever I feel like it. However, cheating has always ticked me off in professional, competitive sports such as these, especially in the Olympics of all places. All of the Olympic doping scandals in recent memory are very worrying to me because of the sheer scale of them. It is no longer one rogue person trying to make a name for themselves; it is entire countries with planned out strategies and laboratories full of cheaters. We should never condone cheating in sports for the sake of its future. If so many people cheat and win, then honest players will have to do it too so they won’t fall behind. That will become dangerous very quickly as people will feel as if they have to take more and more performance-enhancing drugs in bigger and bigger doses to win over someone else who’s taking less than them. I’m sure nobody wants to watch a game where everyone is only “good” at the sport because of drugs. It would be a bleak fate for all of these wonderful organizations that have been making people happy and entertained for so long.
Just because many other teams are cheating does not mean it is an excuse for cheating. If you are cheating during a game, you do not deserve the win. Sports is about being honest and striving to be the best athlete you can be. It is not about winning or losing. It may be upsetting to know that the other team had an unfair advantage, and that is why you lost, but that doesn’t mean you need to cheat too. Then you will be just as bad as the other team. It is more rewarding to know you played your absolute best and lost rather than cheating and winning. I have cheated in sports before, and when I won, I didn’t feel proud of myself. I felt ashamed that I had to cheat just because I wanted to win.
I think that with the Astro’s, their punishment is deserved. Technology is pretty accurate and with it you can crack a code in just 5 minutes, so you can get a very good prediction on what pitches the pitchers like to use and how fast they can throw. Assuming they used machine learning, after a few pitches, the team would know any pattern the pitchers have in types of pitches and how fast they pitch in a game, and that information basically tells you what is going to happen in the game. What’s the point of fans watching the game if one team already knows exactly what pitch is coming next and how fast it would be? It ruins the point, especially when these people are being paid millions for it. I think depending on the type of cheating a team uses can warrant stuff like titles being stripped because if you need to cheat to win, you obviously can’t win on your own. If you could win on your own, you wouldn’t be cheating. So I think it’s safe to say that if the Astro’s didn’t know what pitch was coming at them, and who to put against it, they wouldn’t have won.
I think we should punish cheaters and we should them by taking away anything they earned from cheating. I do think that they should atleast have asterisks on their titles and at most be stripped of them because everyone else is trying to play the game as it’s happening, but they already know what to do and they're just playing with the knowledge that they have from previous game which would be fair if they actually played in it, but they didn’t and they just studied other games that weren’t even theirs.
I think that cheating is extremely unethical and should be severely punished. If you are banging a trash can to alert your teammates who’s up next to bat, something is wron with the way you are playing. There is a fine but clear line between strategy and unethical cheating that has recently been crossed too many times. Sports are meant to be played a certain way, and I can relate to sports performance being affected by outside factors, because I am a competitive swimmer, and know how drastically the order of a relay, or the type of swimsuit you are wearing can affect times or placements. Really, it’s up to coaches and players to remain ethical and cheating in such ways and then making ridiculous excuses such as “everyone’s doing it is” is absolutely absurd and should not be tolerated.
If I was the commissioner of Major League Baseball I would first find hard evidence of cheating, not just speculation. In this instance, after they have enough evidence to convict them, I would hold the franchise to account and make them forfeit their title. I would also suspend the head coach and GM from the league indefinitely.
I think that cheating is becoming a much bigger problem in professional sports recently. It becomes unfair to not only the whole organization but the fans as well. For example, after the Astro were caught it really hurt their organization. They lost a lot and their fans are probably disappointed and upset. Also due to their cheating, they possibly took away a world Sierra title from the Dodgers. Overall, I think that any kind of cheating whether it’s sign stealing, drugs, or anything along those lines puts a dampen on their fans and other fans as well. I think that the saying “if you ain’t cheating, you ain’t trying” has some truth but not in this context. This saying is not truthful when it comes to using drugs or technology to cheat, but yes there are more ethical ways to cheat. In baseball, trying to steal signs by either watching the coach give hitting signs are looking at the catcher and trying to figure out memorize the signs. There is a certain point when stealing signs becomes unethical.
The instance of the Houston Astros cheating during a game allows for a much greater contemplation: how should a sports cheater be punished? The article mentions multiple examples of athletes who have risked fame and titles, by cheating at games. Because to them, it is worth the risk. Although the Houston Astros cheated, they still have their 2017 World Series Title. Similarly, Boston will keep its 2018 title. The two sides to this argument are highly prominent. If the teams were punished and their titles lost, but money would also be lost for the commissioners as they share revenue. Still, I believe that any sports player or team who cheats should learn his/her lesson and be punished. Even if that does mean getting stripped of a title. This is the only way to have a truly ethical sports world. If we continue allowing players to cheat for the sake of money, then their wins won't be wins that they've earned.
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I believe that cheating in sports is a very big problem, especially when the players are getting paid for playing. When they are ruining the complete integrity of the sport they are playing as their profession, it is completely unfair when they are getting paid more for cheating.
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