Astros Owner Jim Crane and his team have "showed no remorse for the things that might matter most in baseball" -- the '17 World Series championship rings on their fingers, according to Jared Diamond of the WALL STREET JOURNAL. Crane during Thursday's press conference said the team's sign-stealing scandal "didn’t impact the game." Crane: "We had a good team. We won the World Series, and we’ll leave it at that.” Astros CF George Springer said that cheating "didn't bolster" the team's stats in '17. Astros P Justin Verlander added that the team had an "'extremely talented ball club' and wouldn't say how much sign-stealing helped its success" (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 2/14). In N.Y., Tyler Kepner notes the Astros' apologies were "more general than specific," and they "do not believe they took something from their opponents." Astros RF Josh Reddick said, “We don’t feel the need to have to reach out to those guys, or anybody for that matter." Astros P Lance McCullers Jr. added, "I believe that championship was earned, 100 percent" (N.Y. TIMES, 2/14). White Sox P Dallas Keuchel, who was on the '17 World Series team, said, "We’re always going to be World Series champs because we were talented and, to me, we earned the right to be World Series champs" (CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, 2/14).
CROWD GETTING LOUDER: Many MLB players continue to speak out on the scandal. Here are a sampling:
- Royals 2B Whit Merrifield: "I used to really respect those guys and respect their games. For me, I have no interest in hearing about them, talking to them, interacting with them at all anymore. I have no respect for those guys anymore" (K.C. STAR, 2/14).
- Rangers RF Shin-Soo Choo: "They won like that ... that’s bull---- for a lot of players. I always respected every one of them, but I’ll be honest with you, I don’t feel like that anymore. It’s hard to take" (Ft. Worth STAR-TELEGRAM, 2/14).
- Nationals P Max Scherzer: "They crossed a moral line, cheated, but they got to answer to it. ... They need to talk to the fans of baseball and explain what happened. Those questions are for them" (PALM BEACH POST, 2/14).
- A's P Sean Manaea: "They skated by everything. They swept everything under the rug. They didn’t own up to anything and they’re trying to move on which is like -- what are you guys trying to move on from? You haven’t even said what it is you did" (S.F. CHRONICLE, 2/14).
- Cubs P Jon Lester: "Everybody can point fingers and all they want, but they screwed up. They got punished for it, and now we move on" (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 2/14).
- Yankees P Gerrit Cole, who played for the Astros in '18-19: "Nobody is getting a win out of this. And it doesn’t look very good. I guess I’m fortunate to be able to be here, move past it" (N.Y. TIMES, 2/14).
