EXCLUSIVE: Steve Garvey knows what a Yankees-Dodgers World Series means to America.
He played in the last three between the two franchises, helping the Dodgers win the most recent meeting in 1981 and playing on the losing end to New York in 1977 and '78. Before that, he was a ball boy for the Brooklyn Dodgers and watched with wide eyes when Brooklyn beat the Yankees for the first time ever to win the title in 1955.
And like many others in baseball, Garvey knows how close America was to witnessing a matchup between the two teams in 2017. The Yankees fell one game shy, losing to the Houston Astros in Game 7 of the ALCS. Then he watched his former team lose to Houston in Game 7 of the World Series.
Two years later, Garvey was shocked by news Houston had cheated that year. The Astros were exposed for an elaborate illegal sign-stealing operation, resulting in sanctions by MLB and suspensions and eventual firings of manager A.J. Hinch and general manager Jeff Luhnow.
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"We were all saddened by it happening. There was evidence of it, and it got to the point where there was always a question when they went seven games with the Astros if it was happening then," Garvey told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview. "And the fans haven't forgotten. So, when they see Houston, it brings out the loudest in them."
As a World Series champion, 10-time All-Star and one-time MVP, Garvey knows how hard it is to hit. He believes the Astros' use of electronic devices to decipher signs and relay them to players from the dugout in real-time was an undeniable advantage that played into the Astros' hitting dominance that year.
"If you can give me what the pitch is, I'm probably going to increase my average by 40-50 points at least. If you know what is coming, a contact hitter like me, and you know it's coming. A contact hitter like me, it's a significant advantage," Garvey said.
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Asked if he thought the Astros would have been able to defeat the Yankees and Dodgers in the playoffs that year without cheating, the former All-Star first baseman equated the advantage to taking steroids.
"I'm quite sure," Garvey responded when asked if he thought the Astros could have won without cheating. "It's like, I equate it to, like, taking steroids. The people who took steroids and the very significant players that were accused of it and so forth were pretty good before that.
"And it's difficult to measure what percentage that they were better. But it's going to have some value with the top players who are able to not only physically, but mentally able think the game and determine when given a slight advantage whether to turn it into a significant advantage."
The debate whether the Astros would have prevailed in the playoffs that year has resurfaced after Yankees general manager Brian Cashman dismissed the notion that his team had to wait 15 years in between its last World Series appearance and this one.
Cashman cited the fact that the Yankees faced the Astros at the height of their cheating scandal. New York lost to the Astros in the ALCS in 2017 and then for a second time in three years in 2019, just months before the scandal was revealed.
"I hate the 15-year thing because it completely forgets and discounts that some other organization cheated us when we were all the way in the end. If you knew what was going on, then I don't think they would be advancing during that time," Cashman said during an appearance on Chris Russo's "High Heat" on MLB Network Tuesday.
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"I think we would have been advancing," Cashman said. "So, I hate that 15-year thing because I don't think it accurately reflects history. But, regardless, we're proud to be where we are now."
The eventual whistleblower for the scandal, former pitcher Mike Fiers, exposed the team's intricate sign-stealing operation in a November 2019 interview with The Athletic. It was then discovered through a league investigation that Houston players and staffers utilized the video replay room to decode opposing team's signs, then banged on trash cans to deliver the decoded signs to hitters at the plate, alerting them what pitch was coming.
Once the operation was made public, the sanctions, suspensions and firings all commenced. Red Sox manager Alex Cora, who spent 2017 on the Astros staff, was revealed to be the mastermind behind the operation, and he was even suspended and fired by Boston before being rehired in 2021.
Under Corra's leadership, the Red Sox also beat the Yankees and Dodgers in the playoffs to win the World Series in 2018.
The Astros players, especially star infielder Jose Altuve, were branded cheaters by baseball fans across the country, especially Yankees and Dodger fans. The team has been relentlessly booed for the scandal ever since. However, Houston showed it could beat the Yankees and win a championship after the scandal, sweeping the Yankees in the 2022 ALCS before beating the Phillies in the World Series that year.
Still, for many of the star Houston players on that 2017 team, including Altuve and shortstop Carlos Correa, they had the best batting average and OPS of their careers that year.
The Astros took a significant step back in 2024, getting swept in the wild-card round by the Detroit Tigers and failing to reach the ALCS for the first time since 2016.
So, the Yankees and Dodgers are finally in position to renew their historic rivalry in the World Series.
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