The Los Angeles City Council, representing fans of their beloved bridesmaid Dodgers, asked Major League Baseball on Tuesday to award the Dodgers the 2017 and 2018 World Series titles in the wake of the sign-stealing scandal rocking the sport.
The measure, brought by council members Gil Cedillo and Paul Koretz, was passed unanimously in a long-shot bid to reverse both World Series, which saw Los Angeles fall short to teams now in a harsh cheating spotlight.
Major League Baseball last week announced the findings of an investigation that showed how the 2017 champion Houston Astros used an elaborate electronic sign-stealing scheme to learn the pitches of opposing teams moments before they threw the ball.
The findings led to the firings of Jeff Luhnow and A.J. Hinch, Houston's general manager and field manager.
MLB is still investigating allegations of sign stealing against the 2018 Red Sox, and the team has already fired manager Alex Cora. Cora, who was a coach for the 2017 Astros, was named as a ringleader of Houston's sign-stealing scheme.
The Dodgers' losses in 2017 and 2018 were particularly bitter for the team, which hasn't won it all since 1988. It's the 10th-longest such streak in baseball, despite the Dodgers' playing in the second-biggest media market in America and consistently doling out one of baseball's biggest payrolls.
"We are very pleased that the City Council joined us and voted unanimously to pass our resolution. They agreed that this is a matter of equity and justice," Cedillo, who represents the neighborhood that includes Dodger Stadium, said in a statement.
"Who was the best team in 2017? Who was the best team in 2018? It was the Dodgers. They got beat by teams that were cheating. We know that the Astros cheated, and they were advantaged by it."
Download the NBC News app for breaking news
Koretz, who represents neighborhoods in the San Fernando Valley and on the Westside, admits that even if MLB made the extraordinary move of stripping the Astros' and the Red Sox' titles, Dodgers fans would still have an empty feeling.
"No, there wouldn't be a parade for the Dodgers," he said. "We don't know whether they would have won or lost a fair fight. But we know they were cheated out of a real shot at a championship."
A representative for Major League Baseball could not immediately be reached for comment Tuesday.
While stripped titles are not uncommon in college sports or the Olympics, they're virtually unheard of in professional sports. The 1919 Cincinnati Reds are still the world champions and the Chicago White Sox remain American League pennant winners, despite the sport's most infamous cheating scandal.
