Sports ownership then and now

Too bad Houston Astros owner Jim Crane didn’t follow the example of Chicago Cardinals owner Chris O’Brien after the NFL awarded the Cardinals the 1925 NFL title. O’Brien refused to accept it because his team cheated to win their game against the Milwaukee Badgers by .hiring Milwaukee high schoolers to play on the Badger team to bolster the Cardinals win-loss percentage in their battle with chief rival Pottsville (PA) Maroons. The Cardinals cruised 58-0 against the kids. It didn’t affect the championship outcome as the Maroons dominated the Cardinals 20-7 in Comisky Park, ensuring them the title. But NFL President Joe Carr rescinded the Maroons title for violating a league rule preventing them from scheduling a game in the Frankfort (PA) Yellow Jackets home territory. In awarding the title to the Cardinals, Carr ruled the Cardinals’ cheating was engineered by a single player unbeknownst to the owner. O’Brien did the right thing, taking responsibility in refusing the title.

Ninety years on Astros’ Crane has decided to hang on to the 2017 World Series Title for dear life even tho it’s tainted with flagrant cheating against Series rival Dodgers. “Our opinion is that this didn’t impact the game. We won the World Series and we’ll leave it at that.” Apparently, Crane simply ignored O’Brien, channeling instead future Cardinal owner Charles Bidwell who acquired the Cardinals in 1946. Bidwell realized the NFL still recognized the Cardinals as the ’25 champs and officially placed the ’25 NFL title back in the Cardinals’ historical record. That wasn’t good for the Cardinals in 1946 and certainly not good for the Astros in 2020.