The record books are pretty clear about one thing: the Houston Astros are the team that won the World Series in 2017. They beat the Los Angeles Dodgers in a grueling seven-game slugfest that, at the time, felt like one of the greatest Fall Classics ever played. People were obsessed. But if you ask a Dodgers fan or basically anyone who follows baseball closely today, that answer comes with a massive, permanent asterisk.
It was a weird year.
The Astros won Game 7 with a 5-1 victory at Dodger Stadium, clinching the first title in their franchise history. George Springer was the hero. He hit five home runs in the series, tying a record held by Reggie Jackson and Chase Utley. It felt like a movie script—a city recovering from the devastation of Hurricane Harvey finally getting something to cheer about. But then 2019 happened. Mike Fiers, a former Astros pitcher, went on the record with The Athletic and blew the whole thing wide open. He revealed a sophisticated sign-stealing scheme involving cameras, monitors, and banging on trash cans.
Suddenly, the question of who won the World Series in 2017 wasn't just a trivia fact. It became a debate about the soul of the game.
The chaos of the 2017 Fall Classic
To understand why this title is so controversial, you have to remember how those games actually looked. Game 2 and Game 5 were absolutely insane. In Game 5, the two teams combined for 25 runs. The Astros won 13-12 in ten innings. It was a game where no lead was safe and every pitcher looked like they were throwing BP.
The Dodgers had Clayton Kershaw on the mound, a first-ballot Hall of Famer who just couldn't miss bats that night. He didn't have a single swing-and-miss on his slider or curveball in that game. Not one. Looking back, that’s statistically bizarre. Knowing now that the Astros were using a center-field camera to decode signs and relaying them to hitters in real-time by banging on a trash can? It makes a lot more sense.
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Why the 2017 result is still debated
Most people just want a simple answer. They want to know the winner. Technically, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred didn't strip the title. The Astros kept the trophy. They kept the rings. But the fallout was nuclear. General Manager Jeff Luhnow and Manager A.J. Hinch were suspended and subsequently fired. The team was fined $5 million and lost a bunch of draft picks.
But for the fans in LA, that wasn't enough. There’s this lingering "what if." What if Yu Darvish hadn't been tipped off? What if the Dodgers had won Game 2 at home?
Honestly, the 2017 season changed how we look at baseball technology forever. It wasn't just Houston, either. The Boston Red Sox were caught using Apple Watches to relay signs earlier that year. The Yankees had their own drama. Baseball has always had a "cheating" culture—think spitballs or corked bats—but this was different. This was industrial-scale, high-tech espionage.
The path to the 2017 title
Let’s look at the actual road to the championship, because even with the scandal, that Astros roster was legitimately terrifying. They had Jose Altuve, who won the AL MVP that year. They had Carlos Correa, Alex Bregman, and a pitching staff led by Dallas Keuchel and a mid-season acquisition named Justin Verlander. Verlander was a beast. He went 5-0 with a 1.06 ERA after coming over from Detroit.
The playoffs were a gauntlet:
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- They took down the Boston Red Sox in the ALDS (3-1).
- They survived a seven-game war with the New York Yankees in the ALCS.
- They went the distance against a 104-win Dodgers team.
The World Series itself was a back-and-forth nightmare for relief pitchers. Kenley Jansen, the Dodgers' dominant closer, blew a save in Game 2. Marwin Gonzalez hit a massive homer off him in the 9th. Then in Game 5, the Astros erased multiple deficits against some of the best arms in the league. It was high-octane baseball that captivated the country, even if the "how" behind the hitting was later called into question.
The George Springer Factor
You can't talk about the 2017 winner without mentioning George Springer. He was the World Series MVP for a reason. After going 0-for-4 with four strikeouts in Game 1, he went on an absolute tear. He became the first player to homer in four straight World Series games within a single year.
In Game 7, he led off with a double and eventually scored, then crushed a two-run homer in the second inning to make it 5-0. That early cushion was all Charlie Morton needed. Morton threw four innings of one-run relief to close it out. It was a masterpiece of "all hands on deck" pitching.
Legacy and the "Asterisk"
The 2017 World Series is probably the most scrutinized sporting event of the 21st century. Even years later, when the Astros go on the road, the boos are deafening. Fans bring trash cans to the bleachers. They wear "Houston Asterisks" jerseys.
Is the title legitimate?
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If you ask the players, they'll tell you they still had to hit the ball. They'll argue that every team was doing something similar. If you ask MLB, they’ll say the investigation was thorough and the punishment was fit for the crime. But the public perception is a different beast entirely. It’s the reason why Carlos Beltran lost his job as Mets manager before he even managed a game. It’s why some people think Altuve’s legacy is tarnished, despite his incredible career stats.
The 2017 World Series wasn't just a win for Houston; it was a turning point for MLB's rules on technology. Now, pitchers and catchers use PitchCom—an electronic device to transmit signals—specifically to prevent what happened in 2017.
What to take away from the 2017 World Series
If you're looking for the official answer: The Houston Astros won. They are the 2017 World Series Champions.
If you're looking for the nuance: It’s the most controversial championship in modern baseball history. The Dodgers' 104-win season ended in heartbreak, and the "trash can" scandal ensured that the 2017 season will be talked about for decades, not just for the play on the field, but for the ethics of the game.
Actionable steps for baseball history buffs
If you want to dive deeper into the reality of what happened during that season, don't just look at the box scores. You have to look at the reporting that changed the sport.
- Read "Winning Fixes Everything" by Evan Drellich. He's one of the reporters who broke the story. The book goes into extreme detail about the culture in Houston and how the sign-stealing system actually functioned.
- Watch the Game 5 highlights again. Now that you know about the banging system, watch the at-bats. Notice how the hitters react to off-speed pitches. It's a completely different experience when you're looking for the cues.
- Compare 2017 to the 2022 Astros. Houston won again in 2022, this time without the scandal hanging over their heads. Comparing the two rosters and their approach shows that the talent was always there, which makes the 2017 choices even more baffling to many fans.
- Check the Statcast data. Look at the "whiff rates" for Dodgers pitchers in Houston versus in Los Angeles during that series. The discrepancy is one of the most cited pieces of circumstantial evidence used by analysts to show the impact of the sign-stealing.
The 2017 World Series remains a permanent fixture in baseball lore. It’s a story of incredible talent, a city's resilience, and a massive breach of competitive integrity that forced the entire sport to look in the mirror and change how it operates. Whether you believe the Astros deserve the trophy or not, they are the ones who have it.