Astros' Altuve, Bregman: Sorry, not sorry
Have you ever heard a kid try to apologize and explain how they broke the living room lamp playing baseball in the house, knowing they aren't allowed to? That kid is more convincing than the lame apologies offered up by the Astros' Jose Altuve and Alex Bregman at an Astros team press conference Thursday morning. Below are the videos. Bregman spoke first. Don't blink or you might miss it.
Statement from Alex Bregman pic.twitter.com/EuE5QHul9h
— Marly Rivera (@MarlyRiveraESPN) February 13, 2020
Statement from José Altuve pic.twitter.com/okYgqzzbWH
— Marly Rivera (@MarlyRiveraESPN) February 13, 2020
New manager Dusty Baker made a brief statement about the upcoming year and then he and team owner Jim Crane took questions from the media. For obvious reasons, most were about the 2017 season and were directed at Crane. Those who thought highly of Crane for firing manager A.J. Hinch and GM Jeff Luhnow, may take a different stance after his response to a question about the tainted title:
"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."
Crane made sure to emphasize that they were apologizing for breaking the rules and NOT for cheating the game. If there was no impact, then why bother apologizing? See, the thing is, breaking those rules did cheat the game. If Crane had a real set he would tell Commissioner Rob Manfred to vacate their 2017 World Series title. Of course, that's as realistic as the Astros going 0-162 this season. 🙏