If I was Chapman I would be pushing the buzzer theory as much I could too, anything to find an excuse for making an awful pitch at a critical time to totally blow it for your team. Nice try.
Problem is, people outside Astros' circles when discussing that Chapman pitch point to the two or three good pitches Altuve laid off of before the HR pitch. As much as I personally suspect other organizations were cheating as well, the Astros are the organization that got caught, and no benefits of the doubt regardless of even an ounce of logic will be considered outside the organization. Company line should be "We understand no one is going to give us the benefit of the doubt and we don't deserve it regardless of what our personal opinions might be on the subject. We fu---- up.......we own it......and now we're focused on the future....."
Of course not. They won’t even make it a footnote. It doesn’t match their narrative or what they want to believe. That’s the most frustrating part of all this—the media is biased and does have an agenda, and they’re not accurately portraying the whole story.
It was a truly awful pitch. Would love to see Chapman say that. "Listen, man, I don't know whether they knew what was coming, but I hung a slider in front of Jose Freakin' Altuve's letters. What did you think he was going to do with it?"
It's over. Whatever. Play ball, go win the whole damn thing. Yeah, fans gonna boo them; opposing pitchers may hit 'em...whatever. Yeah, media hacks gonna try to keep it alive...whatever. (Surely Passan got a column coming how they "bombed" it and they're just so tone-deaf) Fake apologies issued. (Everyone now wishes they said/did more but hell nah I'm not giving back those earnings/rings! ) And the loudmouth Joe's, Holier-than-Thou's, the rest of MLB, go clean up your clubhouse and make sure your clubhouse is clean (and not just of sign stealing). And be sure to self-report it. Be "brave", "heroic". Get it out there, put your name on it. You know, love of the game, just want to clean up the game, just play the game the right way. Oh, and whatever comes from the Red Sox, keep that same energy.
Correct... and that would have been a much better company response. Unfortunately Crane screwed up by saying the cheating didn't help the team win... and now anything the players apologize to will sound insignificant, except Correa who appears to be getting some credit for saying it did.
Even if they had done all that, I don't believe the media would have backed off. They would have found something else about the apology they didn't like and beat it like a dead horse. They are out for blood and they won't accept anything less.
Tim Kurkjian: It was poorly done & very unsatisfying. For Jim Crane to say the 2017 Astros didn't impact the game is ridiculous. It's an enormous advantage when you know what pitch is coming. They stained & damaged the game. To not acknowledge that and offered nothing to the 2017 Dodgers/Yankees was inadequate. We should have heard from the players at the podium. They did say a lot more in the clubhouse. Most of the key Astros were there & took the heat. Carlos Correa was honest. He should have said those words & put him at the podium. Bregman was better at his locker. As bad as the press conference was, it was better in the clubhouse. The people in charge need to be punished & were. The players need to be accountable. They need to continue to show that moving forward. Guys will get thrown at but at least they attempted to try to move this forward. We're not out of the woods yet. He(Jim) said today he was not accountable. When you own the team, you're accountable for what your team does. When he said it doesn't impact the game, that will hang around his neck until he corrects it. For no Astro to say 2017 wasn't tainted, that's hollow, especially from the owner. To not acknowledge it wasn't tainted, people will have a hard time dealing with that moving forward.
Unfortunately, in the world we live in today, there are legalities that complicate the owner's public response. You've already had one player file a lawsuit, and with that predictable precedent set you can expect more. Would be interested in the legal interpretation and ramifications of self-incrimination both from the owners and from the players. But mostly, I wish we lived in a society that did more to prevent such lawsuits from being taken seriously in the first place.
Those ****ing poor Yankees and Dodgers. Shut the **** up. This is the problem the Astros and Astros fans have with the media coverage of this incident. Stained and damaged the game? Are you of out of your ****ing mind? For someone that’s covered baseball as long as Kurkijan it’s impossibly ludicrous how dumb that sounds. Baseball has been stained for decades. This was a product of an environment that’s been around forever. To paint the Astros as the grand mastermind behind the downfall of baseball is complete bullshit.
True, and good take. But... I think a better response from Crane would have been: "We don't know what would have happened without the actions taken, but we do know it was against the rules and should not have been done. So we apologize, we accept the punishment for our actions, we will take active steps to regain the trust of fans, players, teams, and the league as we move forward.."
At least Springer gave a crap George Springer: "There's no real way to express how much regret we have, how much remorse we have…I'm sorry we're in this situation today. I regret the fact that we are in this situation today… — Alyson Footer (@alysonfooter) February 13, 2020 "I feel horrible for our sport, our game, our fans, our city, our organization, the way the our team is being viewed." Springer looks genuinely upset. Also worth noting he and AJ Hinch are very, very close. — Alyson Footer (@alysonfooter) February 13, 2020 Carlos Correa categorically denied the Astros were wearing buzzers. The strongest denial issued to date. — Alyson Footer (@alysonfooter) February 13, 2020
This buzzer issue is a joke. It makes ZERO sense for them to lie about it. They were given immunity to tell what happened. So they ratted themselves out on the one season they actually won the World Series but lied to MLB about last year when they lost? Yea... okay.....
