Cheating

This happened yesterday. See this from the Chron:

A visiting judge from Bexar County on Wednesday ordered a new election in Harris County’s November 2022 180th District Court judicial race that Republican candidate Tami Pierce lost by just 449 votes to Democratic Judge DaSean Jones.

I wonder when the election will be held. Oh, well.

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State Senate District 15 Senator-Elect Molly Cook will shed the elect part of her title when she is officially sworn into office this afternoon at 5:30 pm at Freed Community Center in Spring Branch.

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A barge broke loose from a tugboat yesterday in Galveston and slammed into the Pelican Island Bridge, putting the bridge out of commission. I am betting the culprit is a big Texas GOP donor, like in the hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations and will get off with a light slap on the wrist. Who wants to bet me?

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Like it or not, the Astros are still the face of cheating in MLB. I don’t like it, but that is the way it is. Yeah, yeah, our World Series title in 2022, was a step in the right direction in shedding the cheating image. I guess the team forgot to tell Astros pitcher Ronel Blanco about our cheating image.  See this from the Chron:

Astros starter Ronel Blanco was suspended for 10 games by Major League Baseball on Wednesday, a day after he was ejected from a start against the A’s for having a foreign substance on his glove.

Astros general manager Dana Brown said Blanco will not appeal the suspension, reversing what the pitcher vowed through an interpreter Tuesday night. Blanco, who was also fined an undisclosed amount, declined comment Wednesday, according to an Astros spokesperson.

“I think (Blanco) and his agent had a conversation,” Brown said before Wednesday’s game. “Initially, he was thinking about appealing, and then … him and his agent said, look, I want to get back out there, I’m not going to appeal this, and he’s going to move forward.”

Blanco was ejected from Tuesday’s game after a foreign substance check conducted by first-base umpire Erich Bacchus, who later told a pool reporter he found “the stickiest stuff I’ve felt on a glove since we’ve been doing this for a few years now.” 

Blanco and Astros manager Joe Espada said the stickiness resulted from rosin, a legal substance, mixed with sweat.

By deciding not to appeal, Blanco began serving his suspension Wednesday. Houston will not be able to replace his spot on the active roster while he’s suspended, limiting an already taxed pitching staff amid an impacted stretch of games.

Of the previous five pitchers suspended for using a foreign substance since the MLB’s crackdown on sticky stuff, only two have appealed, and both failed.

MLB announced Wednesday that Blanco was suspended and fined “for violating the prohibitions on foreign substances.” It did not specify what substance was found on Blanco’s glove, which was confiscated by the umpire crew and sent for examination. Brown said the league did not provide that information.

“I would think that they thought it was more than rosin,” Brown said. “I think it was a combination of rosin and the sweat. It’s an umpire’s call. He made the judgment that he thought it was sticky substance, and we’re at the mercy of what his judgment is.”

Tuesday night, Blanco attributed what was found in his glove to “just probably rosin I put on my left arm. Maybe because of the sweat, it got into the glove, and that’s maybe what they found.”

Crew chief Laz Diaz disputed the rosin explanation to a pool reporter after the game, saying: “He said it was just rosin, and we told him: ‘This is not rosin.’ ”

Here is the entire Chron read: Houston Astros’ Ronel Blanco suspended 10 games for foreign substance (houstonchronicle.com).

You might also want to check this related read from the Chron: Houston Astros will review MLB’s foreign substance rules with pitchers (houstonchronicle.com).

Commentary is disappointed in the Astros manager, General Manager, and veteran players for not doing a better job of leading and setting an example to the least experienced players on the cheating issue.  It is like all the hate we have been subjected to the last few years on roadies never existed. This is stupid, dumb, and inexcusable. I guess cheaters gotta cheat. Blanco’s actions were moronic and idiotic. Pitiful.

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We won last night 3 zip.  That is six wins out of our last seven games. Hopefully, we are getting back to our winning ways. See the featured photo.