The 2017 Houston Astros will forever go down as one of the biggest cheaters in sports history. They developed an intricate sign-stealing system that helped them win the World Series with little-to-no trouble.
Some argue that it’s a part of the game and that other teams should be to blame for allowing their signs to be stolen. Others state that it’s one thing to come up with your rivals’ signs and another to use technology to steal from them.
Wherever you stand, you can only agree that the World Series title will always carry an asterisk next to it. If not, just ask Carlos Beltran, one of the biggest names involved in this scandal.
MLB News: Carlos Beltran Admits 2017 World Series Title Is ‘Stained’
“Looking back now, yes, we did cross the line,” Beltran told Michael Kay. “Yeah, there is (a stain) because, you know what we did. And we all have taken responsibility and at some point we all have shown remorse about what we did.”
“We all did what we did,” the 9-time All-Star continued. “Looking back today, we were wrong. I wish I would’ve asked more questions about what we were doing. I wish the organization would’ve said to us, ‘Hey man, what you guys are doing, we need to stop this.’”
“Nobody really said anything,” Beltran said. “We’re winning, you know, and some days our system really worked. Some days [it] didn’t really work … but we had a good team … we had such a good team.”
Astros Thought Other Teams Were Stealing Signs From Them
Beltran was pointed out as the mastermind behind the sign-stealing scheme. However, he claims that the initiative came from several players who thought other teams were doing the same against them:
“(Some players) felt that when teams are coming to our ballpark [Minute Maid Park], we felt that some teams have something going on,” Beltran admitted. “So we felt that we needed to create our own [system], you know, and that’s what happened.”
“We’re seeing the game … you get to see the pitchers, you get to see the catchers,” Beltran explained. “And then we felt that we could use that, you know, but we didn’t feel that we were really crossing the line there. We didn’t feel we were really crossing the line. We felt in our hearts that we were being more efficient and smarter than any team out there.”
The Front Office Never Tried To Stop Them
Moreover, Beltran claims that, even though the Astros front office was well aware of the practice and how it broke Major League Baseball’s policy, they never even tried to stop the players from doing it:
“If they [the Astros front office] got the letter [from MLB], they knew, but they never shared it with us,” Beltran said. “Nobody said anything to us, you know, nobody said anything. I wish somebody would’ve said something. A lot of people always ask me why you didn’t stop it. And my answer is, ‘I didn’t stop it the same way no one stopped it.’ This is working for us. Why you gonna stop something that is working for you? So, if the organization would’ve said something to us, we would’ve stopped it for sure.”
At the end of the day, it’s not like the Astros needed to cheat to win, as they had one of the most stacked teams in recent memory.
