Astros Owner Claims Cheating Didn’t Impact World Series (then Backpedals); Players “Apologize” (but Don’t Take Questions)

By Eric Strack |

Updated: Feb 13, 2020

“Our opinion is that this didn’t impact the game.” – Jim Crane

“I didn’t say it didn’t impact the game.” – Jim Crane 55 seconds later pic.twitter.com/MnpPeeTUPL
— CBS Sports (@CBSSports) February 13, 2020

“So then what are you guys apologizing for?”
“We’re apologizing because we broke the rules.”

Astros owner Jim Crane and @MarlyRiveraESPN went back and forth during the team’s news conference. pic.twitter.com/2hdR1sFGcd
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) February 13, 2020

Jim Crane sounds tone deaf. Jose Altuve and Alex Bergman spoke for less than a minute and a half combined. Dusty Baker, who has been Astros manager for two weeks, sounded the most sincere. What a mess.
— Robert Murray (@ByRobertMurray) February 13, 2020

Here’s video of the Houston Astros Apology, in case you missed it earlier: pic.twitter.com/v5eqJRenbg
— OrdioMongo (@OrdioMongo) February 13, 2020

I don’t know whether to yell at all of these Astros players, coaches and owner… or if I should just laugh and pretend like none of it gets to me. If it weren’t for having to answer some VERY uncomfortable questions, I’d say everyone still involved with this team thinks this whole controversy is a big joke.

It’s absolutely disgusting… but glorious at the same time.

How about Astros Owner, Jim Crane? This guy looks completely composed on the outside but nothing coming out of his mouth makes any sense. First, he says he didn’t think anything they did impacted the game… but then backtracks quickly (if you can’t listen to the video above):

“Our opinion is this didn’t impact the game. We had a good team. We won the World Series and we’ll leave it at that.”
Jim Crane – Houston Astros Owner

I didn’t say it didn’t impact the game. Basically, as the commissioner said, he’s not going to go backwards. It’s hard to determine how it impacted the game or if it impacted the game, and that’s how we’re going to leave it.
Jim Crane – Houston Astros Owner

Actually sir… you did just say that.

via GIPHY

Jim Crane actually said that he, the owner, doesn’t think he deserve to be held accountable… Then, when pressed on whether the players deserve to take any blame, Jim said, “

“It could have been stopped and it wasn’t stopped… Our players should not be punished. … These are a great group of guys who did not receive proper guidance from their leaders.”
Jim Crane – Houston Astros Owner

In other words, he’s blaming already fired AJ Hinch (manager) and Jeff Luhnow (GM), and saying they were the only authority figures who could have taken charge and stopped the cheating from taking place… but remember, that accountability definitely doesn’t travel up the authority ladder all the way to him.

Crane said that the buzzers never happened, either. How does he know? Well, because the players promised him they didn’t do any cheating with buzzers…

It’s relieving to know we can stop worrying about those damn buzzers, now that the INCREDIBLY TRUSTWORTHY Houston Astros players told their owner they are innocent of that specific crime.

Because this organization is so 1st class, we got to hear from Alex Bregman and Jose Altuve again, to address this entire scandal, but they didn’t take questions…

Why should they? They are innocent and shouldn’t be held accountable, remember? Maybe when they do eventually answer questions, one teammate can tap a coffee cup so they know what question is coming?

Jose Altuve and Alex Bregman really hit their statements right out of the park again too, just like the first time they addressed this scandal a couple of weeks ago….

Bravo.

Anybody want to start their day with a fake apology by Alex Bregman? (Video from @MarlyRiveraESPN) pic.twitter.com/sH2xNmtGs0
— Joe Randazzo (Bronx Pinstripes crew) (@deflategator) February 13, 2020

Jose Altuve apology pic.twitter.com/iq624uF11Q
— Brian McTaggart (@brianmctaggart) February 13, 2020

The guy who reportedly showed the most remorse, was Dusty Baker, who was just hired and had nothing to do with this scandal.

Carlos Correa was a little bit better but he tried to tamp down all of the blame that is now being shifted to former teammate Carlos Beltran, who is now taking the most heat as the orchestrator of this whole sign-stealing scheme.

Correa stood up for Carlos Beltran, who was fired as manager of the Mets before he could even manage a game because of his role on the 2017 Astros. In the MLB report, Beltran was pointed at as someone who led the sign-stealing. Correa refuted any report that Beltran intimidated the younger players to illegally steal signs.
“He was the nicest guy that we could ever have,” Correa said. “He was the best teammate we’ve ever had. Beltran was obviously a leader of the clubhouse but we all had a say in everything that we were doing in there. Whatever he said and whatever we were doing, we had the chance to stop it as a team. Everybody. Everybody had the chance to say something and we didn’t. So, whoever the anonymous source is that’s saying we felt intimidated or we were too young to say something: That is just straight up (B.S.).”
Carlos Correa – (via Texas Sports Nation)

2017 World Series MVP, George Springer also “apologized”…. FOX 7 out of Austin did a great job of combining all of the video and made it available to embed so I have done that here:

I’m sure more will drop on this scandal, as time goes on but we are still yet to hear what kind of cheating the Boston Red Sox have done, so stay tuned.

At the end of the day, the MLB is going to have to address HOW this happened and fix it… which I will do for them later today.

Eric Strack | Minnesota Sports Fan