No Need For Apologies From the Houston Astros, Their 2017 Title Will Be Judged By History

Yesterday's (2/13/20) Houston Astros press conference to apologize for cheating baseball and it's fans, went exactly as I expected. Jose Altuve did not look like a man who was sincere in his regret, he looked inconvenienced. He and the Astros are not sorry for what they did, they are just sorry. We don't need apologies from them, sincere or otherwise, history will judge them.

While observing the different team members and front office people during this press conference I had a few takeaways and they are:

• They have no realistic concept of how they will be viewed historically in the game of baseball. I really think they believe this will go away, it won't. Baseball does not have to strip this team of it's 2017 World Series title because we all view it as invalid already.
• They are willing to admit they cheated in 2017 and are going to continue to keep lying about 2018 & 2019. The truth is, if you are cheating and getting away with it, there's no reason to stop. The public did not get wind of this until last year and the league heard other teams complaining and doing nothing about it, so why stop? Maybe the league quietly got them word to cut it out in 2019 but for them to suggest to all of us that they stopped in 2018 on their own is a lie. By insisting their sign stealing only happening in 2017 what they are really doing is saying baseball fans are stupid.
• They are not sorry

I wrote about this team several times before this all broke in the media. In 2018, I wrote about their cocky HR celebrations. Now we can look back and wonder how many of them would have ever happened if they were not cheating the game. I wrote about them a second time in 2018 which wasn't much of an article I must admit but my antenna must have been up. I'm not hear to tell you I knew they were cheating or even suggested it but I knew I did not like them. Then in 2019 I wrote about their rematch with the Yankees and talked about the arrogance of the Houston players. I wonder what made them feel so superior and confident?

I love baseball but I hate how the league has sat on it's hands and allowed the results of the games to be smeared by both steroids and now this. As angry as I am about all of this, I take great comfort in knowing that their title is not a title and these men will have to grow old knowing that. They will also be asked about it any and everywhere they go for the rest of their lives and they don't see it coming.

I heard a high profile sports talk radio host say yesterday that they are still the second best team in the American League, he said they have a real good chance of getting to the ALCS, maybe the World Series. I see things very different, they lost Gerrit Cole, Verlander is a year older and they can't cheat anymore because we are all watching. The icing on the cake is that they have to deal with the mental rigors of being hounded by fans, opponents and media everywhere they play this year. They are not mentally tough enough to handle that because they are not mentally tough enough to win without cheating.

If you missed the colossal PR disaster of a press conference, here are the highlights. Below you will get to see Astros owner Jim Crane saying the cheating did not impact the outcome of games, minutes later, he said he didn't say that. You will also get to enjoy Alex Bregman and Jose Altuve pretending be sorry.

Why shouldn't we touch your shirt Jose? Self conscience about your nipples? Or are you hiding a device that allows you to know what pitch is coming?