By now, even the most casual of baseball fans know the details behind the Houston Astros’ sign-stealing scandal, which led to fines and loss of draft picks for the team and the firing of Houston’s general manager and field manager — as well as two others who were involved and had later become managers of other teams. Players received immunity in return for cooperation with Major League Baseball’s investigation.
During the team’s winter fan festival, multiple Astros players took public criticism for explanations that were deemed by some to be not complete and sincere enough to be considered adequate apologies.
As spring training camp began this week, the Astros needed a plan to deal with with the full brunt of the media. It is standard damage control protocol. Owner Jim Crane met privately with his team on Wednesday, and on Thursday he led a small group that included new manager Dusty Baker and players Jose Altuve and Alex Bregman.
While apologies were issued by all, Crane is taking considerable heat in the court of public opinion for asserting the cheating did not affect game outcomes.
“Our opinion is this didn’t impact the game,” Crane said about the effect of the team’s illegal sign stealing in 2017. “We had a good team. We won the World Series, and we’ll leave it at that.”
Soon, Crane seemed to contradict himself.
“I didn’t say it didn’t impact the game,” the owner said.
Again, even the most casual of observers would question this. After all, the cheating Astros won the 2017 World Series.
I am not defending Crane in any way, but I believe he was advised to stop short of admitting guilt that his team’s behavior altered game outcomes.
The reason is another court, but this one is for real.
Lawsuits have already been filed. The civil suit to date receiving the greatest notice is by former pitcher Mike Bolsinger, who is asking the Astros to forfeit their $31 million in bonuses received in 2017 and give it to charity.
But other litigation could be far more extensive and damaging. A Texas law firm is soliciting fans to join a proposed class action lawsuit to reimburse those who purchased tickets to Astros games when the club was cheating.
Multiple daily fantasy players have filed lawsuits in federal court against MLB, hoping to expand them into class action status as well. Their angle is the legal partnership between MLB and DraftKings and the profit MLB receives from DFS.
Against that backdrop, had Houston’s Crane admitted his team’s actions affected game outcomes, he would be giving those who have initiated lawsuits (and perhaps many perhaps yet to file) a smoking gun to be used against MLB.
Don’t get me wrong. I am not defending the team’s behavior, but from a legal perspective, I get why Crane did what he did.
A full apology from the Astros could have been a colossal financial error. Men like Crane did not become extremely wealthy and stay that way by making careless mistakes. He was willing to lose the battle on Thursday with an eye on the larger war to fight that is still ahead.
Like it or not, that is my take on what was not said from Astros camp on February 13.
Brian Walton was the 2009 National League Tout Wars champion, scoring the most single-season points in the league’s two decades-plus of history. He also holds the all-time NL Tout single-season records for wins and saves. His work can also be found daily at TheCardinalNation.com. Follow Brian on Twitter.
