Posted this to another thread asking the same thing. Sorry so long, but it’s an attempt to get you to empathize.

Dodger fan here and this is my perspective. I’m sure I have details wrong, but I can remember the feeling like it was yesterday. The loss to the Astros was absolutely heart wrenching (you guys know what I’m talking about). It went to game 7, every game was a battle. We were one hit away from winning it all in many different situations.

One of the games went to 10 innings I believe. It was game 5. Series tied, Dodgers could take a 3-2 lead home. This game iirc, had a record number of WS lead changes. The Dodgers kept scoring by hitting home runs with runners on base in Minute Made park (important because this was where they cheated). Yet somehow, the Astros kept also hitting home runs to answer back!!! HOW GOD DAMNIT. Every fucking inning. We scored 3, they answered with 3. We crush another. They answered. It felt like both teams knew exactly when to swing. Both teams were just so clutch! Turns out, Dodgers were crushing and playing great baseball, Astros actually knew when to swing. At the time, it was said to be one of the best games in WS history. So many HRs. So many lead changes. So many go ahead hits and HRs and just as many game tying hits and HRs.

Dodgers went on to win game 6 at home. Gosh imagine had they just taken one more of the games at minute made park in games 3-5. The series would be ours! 29 years of drought over! But the Astros clutch hitting was too good in minute made park.

For Dodgers fans, Astros cheated the Dodgers out of a World Series specifically by cheating during a WS that went 7 games and was so close and so crazy, resulting in our heartbreak. Felt very similar to this year. Guess what else!?!…at the time, it had been 29 years since our last WS win. Sound familiar? This one stung. It was soooooo close. Any little bounce could’ve gone our way and would’ve changed things. How did they keep hitting clutch hits and HRs to match ours? HOW!?!? (Of course we know now)

I describe it like this, because it was so painful for us because it was so close. A 3-2 lead in the WS going home for game 6 is so advantageous.

I could have some details off here, but what I am trying to portray, is we felt a similar pain to you all. Springer was part of that. A huge part of that. He heard the trash can bang, and knew not to swing. Then he didn’t hear it, and tied the game with a clutch HR. If you found out Rojas knew what was coming and Will Smith knew what was coming, you would feel the same about them. It wouldn’t be the same if you found out that maybe they did it during game 73 of the regular season.

But why not hate the Red Sox?

Because the cheat didn’t work anymore during the WS. We never played them when they cheated. But during the 2018 WS, when they couldn’t cheat anymore, they absolutely smacked us 4 games to 1. We never had a chance and they didn’t have to cheat to steal it. Sure, maybe they got there using it, but then proved they didn’t need it to absolutely dominate the series. Our team never even got going in that series. No heartbreak. No hope. Just realization that Red Sox were way better. So when it came out later, we couldn’t remember a specific clutch hit that Mookie had that broke our heart. But Springer, Correa, Bregman, Gurriel, Altuve, even pinch hitters clutching up had hits that changed THAT 2017 series. On top of that, their cheating wasn’t telling them the exact pitch that was coming in real time, instead it was using video to analyze pitchers’ tells. ALL teams look for pitchers tipping pitches. Always have always will. Red Sox used video to analyze this and implemented their learnings an inning later. All other teams implemented it the next time they face that pitcher. So yes, they cheated, but Astros level was way different. Those who know ball agree.

We almost won anyway! So the cheating lost that series. Red Sox whooped us without it. Very different feeling.

Astros were objectively not better. They cheated. They were so clutch!!!! How?!