Poll: Nearly 50 percent of people think the Astros cheating investigation was a 'cover-up'
We’ve reached the point in the Houston Astros cheating scandal that polling services are trying to get the pulse of how average Americans feel about everything Astros.
And surprise — they don’t really trust MLB’s investigation.
The Seton Hall Sports Poll — the leading university-based sports poll — surveyed about 700 people across the country and had a few interesting takeaways about the Astros scandal. The results were announced Thursday. Perhaps most fascinating, 49 percent of people said they believe MLB’s investigation was more of a “cover up” than a “serious effort to punish wrongdoing.”
The numbers looked like this:
• Cover-up: 49%
• Serious effort: 14%
• Don’t know/no opinion: 36%
This continues the narrative that MLB’s punishments — during which players received immunity for their cooperation and only Astros leadership was penalized — didn’t satisfy fans who wanted players to held accountable for what the league determined was a player-led scheme.
Did Astros players deserve to be punished?
The poll also asked whether the Astros players should have been punished and an overwhelming amount of responders said yes. The numbers:
• Yes: 54%
• No: 17%
• Don’t know/No opinion: 29%
Other takeaways: Pete Rose, David Ortiz and 2020 viewership
Seton Hall’s poll also had the following takeaways related to the Astros saga:
• 55% of people think whistleblower Mike Fiers should have spoken up when he was still with the Astros in 2017.
• 57% of those polled said Pete Rose should be eligible for the Hall of Fame, however ...
• 58% said the Astros scandal has no bearing on Pete Rose’s case.
• Only 17% said they were “less likely” to watch baseball this season because of the Astros. Another 70% said it would have no effect and 7% said they’d watch more baseball.
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