In February, Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James tweeted out his support of the Dodgers and their players for being "cheated out of winning the title." He also expressed his anger and disgust with the team that cheated to win that title: the Houston Astros.
Now, James is going to make sure fans in Los Angeles never forget what the Astros did in 2017, as he set to produce a new docuseries tentatively titled "Sign Language," about Houston's sign-stealing scandal.
Short-form video streaming platform Quibi made the announcement on Friday, and said that Julia Willoughby Nason and Jenner Furst, who directed the documentary "Fyre Fraud" on Hulu, will direct the docuseries with James' sports media company Uninterrupted producing. Maverick Carter, who founded the company with James, will be an executive producer on the project.
"The documentary will transcend the baseball diamond to explore larger themes of greed, cheating, corruption, sportsmanship and social media activism," said Quibi in a press release. "Sign Language will be the definitive documentary about the scandal that rocked America's pastime."
The 2017 World Series Champion Houston Astros were embroiled in scandal after former pitcher Mike Fiers blew the whistle on his old teammates to The Athletic last fall. Fiers revelations led to an investigation by Major League Baseball that uncovered an extensive sign-stealing campaign that illegally used cameras in center field to steal the opposing catcher's signs and relay them in real time to the hitters during games.
The sign-stealing scheme went on for years, originating with team personnel banging on trash cans from below the dugout, to whistles, and hand signals from the bullpen. MLB's investigation revealed that former Astros' bench coach and Boston Red Sox manager Alex Cora was the ring leader of the electronic sign-stealing, and he was subsequently suspended and then fired by Boston.
The investigation also led to the suspension and ultimately firing of Astros' manager A.J. Hinch and general manager Jeff Lunhow. At least a dozen players participated in the scandal, but none of the players were punished.
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After the findings of the investigation were made public during the start of spring training, MLB players across all 30 teams including the Dodgers spoke to the media about their reactions to the investigation.
Reigning National League Most Valuable Player Cody Bellinger did not mince words when he publicly stated that the Astros "Stole a ring from us," and called the players initial apologies, and the lack of punishment by MLB commissioner Rob Manfred, "weak."
Bellinger's comments sparked a war of words with Astros' players, but players across the league supported Bellinger and voiced their anger and disgust with the Astros cheating.
At the time, LeBron James even tweeted his support of those players, telling the commissioner that he "needs to fix this for the sake of Sports!"
Despite the fact that James plays basketball and not baseball, his passion and outrage at what the Astros did makes it easy to understand why he would want to produce a documentary about the scandal.
As of now, there is no release date for the docuseries, but with James behind it, it's sure to feature a star-studded cast of athletes and superstars across all sports.
