HOU GOTTA BE KIDDING!
Astros owner Crane says cheating didn’t cost Yanks the title
Jim Crane did nothing to quell the growing anger from the baseball community when he opened his mouth Thursday. Especially those residing in the Bronx.
The Astros owner spoke at the team’s spring training facility in West Palm Beach as the franchise trotted out several players in a lame attempt to apologize for the signstealing scandal that has rocked the baseball world since the story first broke in November.
“Our opinion is this didn’t impact the game,” Crane said when specifically asked about how the Yankees should feel about losing to the Astros in the 2017 ALCS. “We had a good team. We won the World Series and we’ll leave it at that.”
Yankees skipper Aaron Boone called B.S. when asked about Crane’s comments.
“That’s quite a stretch,” Boone said. “To what extend it helped, we’ll never know.”
After months of silence and defiance, Alex Bregman and Jose Altuve also offered brief apologies for their illegal sign stealing during the bungled PR stunt.
“I am really sorry about the choices that were made by our team, by the organization and by me,” Bregman said of the scandal that led to suspensions and subsequent firings of manager A.J. Hinch and GM Jeff Luhnow.
Speaking on behalf of the team, the MVP runner up told reporters we “learned from this” and that he hopes to “regain the trust of baseball fans.”
Bregman thanked Astros fans for their support.
“We as a team are totally focused on moving forward to the 2020 season,” he added.
Altuve then stepped forward.
“The whole Astros organization and the team feels bad about what happened in 2017,” he said.
Altuve won the MVP in 2017, the year the Astros won the World Series, beating the Yankees and Dodgers in closely-contested sevengame series.
The two Astros stars took a markedly different approach to the sign stealing scandal last month.
“The Commissioner came out with a report, MLB did their report and the Astros
did what they did,” Bregman told reporters during Astros Fan Fest in January. “They made their decision on what they’re going to do.”
At the same event, Altuve balked at the thought of being called a cheater.
“You don’t want anyone to call you like that,” Altuve said. “I have two options. One you just cry or go out and play the game and perform and help my team and you know which one I’m gonna do.”
During the press conference, Crane said that Bregman, Altuve and their teammates “were a great group of guys who did not receive proper guidance.”
He then vowed the cheating “won’t happen again on my watch.”
The press conference came after the Astros — under new manager Dusty Baker — held a team meeting on Wednesday night.