Apologies OK, but they won’t erase the stain
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — The Astros’ towering orange star looks completely different now. So does the huge white H. During past years, fans had turned the team’s instantly recognizable logo — massive, monumental and visible from a street away — into a spring-training destination.
Take a photo that will last decades. Snap a cool selfie in the Florida sun. Post, post, post on social media, proving to everyone that you were lucky enough to be in the same relaxed preseason
environment as Alex Bregman, George Springer, Jose Altuve, Justin Verlander, A.J. Hinch and Jeff Luhnow.
Another sign was then planted in the ground, proudly resting below the orange star and white H: 2017 WORLD CHAMPIONS.
Three years ago, everything started easy and upbeat here. Hinch was in control. Luhnow had added respected veterans Carlos Beltran and Brian McCann to push the rebuilt Astros farther. Owner Jim Crane had another sparkling, eye-catching mantle piece — a state-of-the-art spring training complex that would be shared with the lesser Washington Nationals. And a few Houston media members were given an early behind-thescenes tour of a facility that would soon house two world champions.
The Nats’ red W stood taller than ever Wednesday as palm trees waved, thick
white clouds hovered, nearby ponds sparkled and birds cut through a perfect blue sky.
Walkways leading toward the Astros’ orange star and white H?
Guarded. Protected. Roped off. And everything 99 percent off limits, as Major League Baseball kept waiting for Houston’s professional baseball team to speak and the Astros kept a white-hot spotlight pointed at themselves.
They should have gotten this over weeks ago. At least at Fanfest, when the still-faithful swarmed Minute Maid Park, and autographs and smiling photos were all that really mattered.
Dallas Keuchel has already talked. Charlie Morton has spoken. Marwin Gonzalez opened up via public confession.
Hinch was fired, then gave an in-depth one-onone interview on national television. Luhnow was axed, then his name started appearing regularly within the Wall Street Journal.
But on a day when the Astros could have addressed the sign-stealing scandal and finally started the process of moving on, security guards flanked the left side of the Ballpark of the Palm Beaches, and the ever-present combination of badges, walkie-talkies and golf carts had the Astros’ half looking more like Mar-a-Lago than the comforting spring home of a 107-win team.
If you don’t open the doors, maybe everyone will just eventually go away?
By 7 p.m. local time, the Astros still hadn’t announced what time they were officially opening up Thursday morning. More than an hour later, they finally let it be known there would be a news conference with Crane, manager Dusty Baker and players at 9:30 a.m. EST Thursday.
“No. That’s certainly one of those great unknowns,” said New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone, when asked Wednesday if he was certain the Astros
weren’t wearing electronic devices at the plate during the 2019 season. “Certainly, I’ve spent time, as I’m sure a lot of people have, wondering all the things that could have potentially been going on. … I’ve spent time wondering, and we’ll probably never know for sure.”
What are the 2020 Astros going to say?
More importantly: What can they say?
There are no perfect words that will erase everything, especially after Hinch admitted so much during his national TV sitdown, Keuchel and Morton apologized, and Gonzalez acknowledged that the only World Series trophy in Astros history definitely could be tainted.
Baker also has games to play in less than 10 days, during a season that again could last until late October. General manager James Click is as new as Baker and was just introduced as Luhnow’s sudden replacement.
Michael Brantley had nothing to do with the 2017
Astros.
Forrest Whitley is still waiting to pitch in his first big league game.
If you weren’t in orange and blue in ’17, do you still have to stand with the team when the 2020 club makes its Crane-planned orchestrated apology? Or can you just practice playing baseball? Hit in the cage, throw on the side, shag flies in one of many outfields.
“I’m here to tell how I feel, and yes, I’m remorseful for everything that happened in 2017, everything that we did as a group,” Gonzalez told reporters Tuesday as Minnesota opened spring camp. “The players who were affected directly by us doing this and some other things — that is where I feel the most regret, and that is where I’m remorseful.”
In a simple world, the Astros could just read their ex-teammates’ words and then politely ask the national media to go check on the other teams also warming up in south Florida.
In the real world, the
talk-radio voice during the Uber to the airport is breaking down the Astros’ endless sign-stealing scandal on a station normally reserved for modern hip-hop. Then a row of glossy TVs inside the airport features daytime programming dedicated to the cheating Astros.
Welcome to sunny Florida.
Shouting supporters and still-believers will soon arrive. Autographs and selfies will return. By late March, Baker should have taken the first pulse of the 2020 Astros.
But right now, the massive orange star and white H are just a beacon for the inquiring masses that want to know it all.
MLB’s 2019 world champions safely reside next door.
What’s left of the 2017 Astros lives here. And nothing those Astros say will make any of this go away.