Los Angeles Dodgers President Andrew Friedman made his feelings on the Houston Astros playing the victim card clear on Mad Dog Sports appearance.
Los Angeles Dodgers President Andrew Friedman spoke for all decent baseball fans in the world on Mad Dog Sports, when he took a shot at the Houston Astros for playing the victim card in the 2020 playoffs.
"Like, I get that it's been a difficult year for them, but to play the victim card, I think has been, you know, a curious strategy." 2/2
— Bill Plunkett (@billplunkettocr) October 9, 2020
Friedman has played off '17 bitterness by saying there's "zero upside" in thinking about it because it won't change. But bitterness remains.
And good on him for doing so. Of course, he said “the Astros are acting like petulant children” in the most diplomatic way possible. But reading between the lines is pretty easy on this one.
I am so unbelievably tired of the Astros acting like it’s unfair that the league is out to get them. After all, the only thing they’re guilty of is a cheating scandal that rivals any previous scandal in the history of the game. How dare other teams and fans be upset with them for that?
The Houston Astros are the villains of the league because they made themselves the villains. League-wide hatred has only grown stronger in 2020, as they will be playing in the ALCS for the fourth straight year after finishing the 2020 regular season with a sub .500 record. Had Commissioner Rob Manfred not expanded the playoffs to put more money in the pockets of ownership, the Astros would be as irrelevant as the Seattle Mariners at this point in the season.
But good luck telling the Astros that. They’ll keep using the unjust criticism of the haters as motivation. Despite the fact that every bit of that hate and criticism is entirely earned. The Astros cheated the game of baseball, got caught, and backed into an undeserved spot in the playoffs.
So who better to call them out on it than the man in charge of the Los Angeles Dodgers. The team that lost to the Astros in the 2017 World Series at the height of the (“provable”) sign stealing allegations.
Here’s to hoping that one day, Astros players take actual accountability for their actions. Unfortunately, that day certainly won’t come during the 2020 playoffs.