"You were doing it too" - Houston Astros chairman Jim Crane takes a dig at Brian Cashman and the New York Yankees; insinuates Jose Altuve was mistreated in wake of sign-stealing scandal
When the Houston Astros were found guilty of stealing signs in the 2017 and 2018 seasons, the franchise was rocked to its core. Major League Baseball handed out hefty punishments, fining the club $5 million and docking a series of high draft picks from a team that was going to need young talent with its core quickly approaching free agency. In addition to that, General Manager Jeff Lunhow, Manager A.J. Hinch, and a former bench coach who led the Boston Red Sox to a World Series title the following year, Alex Cora, were all suspended for a year. Former player and team leader on the Houston Astros, Carlos Beltran was heavily encouraged to resign from his new position managing the New York Mets, and the Houston Astros had a stain in the media that made them lucky that ballparks had limited capacity in the 2020 MLB season. However, the members of the Houston Astros were not the only ones to partake in stealing signs.
Houston Astros owner Jim Crane took the chance to remind anyone who would listen that his team was not the only one leveraging sign-stealing.
After a court case filed by Daily Fantasy Sports players against MLB and the Red Sox revealed a letter existed from commissioner Rob Manfred to the New York Yankees regarding sign-stealing, the Yankees did everything they could to keep that document sealed. However, SNY was able to obtain the document which revealed that the New York Yankees in 2016 "improperly used a dugout phone in a season before 2017, and some players positioned themselves in the team’s replay room seeking to steal the opponents’ signs and relay that information to runners on second base" (courtesy of the New York Post). This prompted owner Jim Crane to state that his club was unfairly targeted in the backlash that followed.
Astros' Jim Crane fires back at Yankees' Brian Cashman, Jose Altuve critics: 'You were doing it too' cbssports.com/mlb/news/astro…
"Astros' Jim Crane fires back at Yankees' Brian Cashman, Jose Altuve critics: 'You were doing it too'" - @ CBS Sports MLB
This isn't the first time this viewpoint has been presented, as Boston Red Sox ace Chris Sale proclaimed in April of this year that the Astros weren't alone in stealing signs, they just happened to use it better than other teams. When asked to respond to Crane's comments, New York Yankees General Manager Brian Cashman shared his own thoughts with an odd analogy.
Brian Cashman: "I don't think anybody's going to dance to the tune [Jim Crane's] singing... I'd say it's called deflection, him trying to equate probably... an equivalent of a parking ticket to maybe 162 felonies."
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Brian Cashman: "I don't think anybody's going to dance to the tune [Jim Crane's] singing... I'd say it's called deflection, him trying to equate probably... an equivalent of a parking ticket to maybe 162 felonies."- @ Marly Rivera, ESPN
The Houston Astros have moved on better than anyone could have expected. They won the American League pennant last season and have recently won 10 games in a row.