Disgraced Astros GM speaks

Jeff Luhnow made much noise earlier this week about his innocence in the Houston Astros sign-stealing scheme.

That’s right … the former general manager of the disgraced 2017 champions tried to steal — if you will — the spotlight from the beginning of the World Series.

Timing-wise, it’s not exactly good optics for a guy whose name is already mud in baseball circles.

Although maybe Luhnow can’t sink any lower, so what the hey anyway?

Or perhaps to come out proclaiming his innocence in the scandal for the first time since he was fired in January on the eve of the World Series was the plan all along.

To do so is pretty brash, after all.

You’ll recall that Luhnow’s Astros were crowned Major League Baseball champions three years ago and it was revealed this past off-season that they had cheated in, at least, those playoffs. The scheme involved the use of replay monitors to decode signs used by opposing catchers so that the type of forthcoming pitches could then be relayed to Astros batters by banging on a trash can. Alarming stuff.

So Luhnow talked candidly Monday with reporter Vanessa Richardson of Houston’s KPRC TV, saying, “It was bad. It shouldn’t have happened. Our team broke the rules. And I’m sure there was some advantage gained from breaking the rules. But unfortunately, had I known about it, I would have stopped it. Nobody came to me and told me it was going on, and I just didn’t know.”

As the man in charge, he should’ve known.

So, one way or another, Luhnow needed to be fired — to be one of the fall guys.

But coming out to protest the firing much later, just hours before the first pitch of the 2020 World Series, seems calculated.

He must feel as if he’s armed with enough ammo to be heard loudly, confident that his pleas of innocence will be heard — and perhaps he’ll be talked about with less disdain at the ol’ ballpark.

If not, then the timing is just pretty darn bold.

Regardless, it’s unlikely to make a dent in the way anybody feels about Luhnow and his Astros.

They’re still the villains of the sports world these days — and that’s much-deserved.