Many members of the 2017 Astros team will have this hanging over their head the rest of their lives. One member Evan Gattis, who was a part of that 2017 Astros World Series team that took advantage of technology and trash cans to steal signs from opposing teams has spoken out.
He talked to The Athletic on the755 Is Real podcast, and Gattis reflected on the cheating scandal and offered his apology. He admitted that the Astros did what they were accused of and felt as if they cheated the game. Here is what Gattis had to say:
“I don’t know how to feel yet. We didn’t look at our moral compass and say, ‘Yeah, this is right.’ It was almost like paranoia warfare or something. What we did was wrong. Don’t get it twisted. It was wrong for the nature of competition — not even just baseball. Yeah, that was wrong. I will say that. … We cheated baseball. We cheated fans. Fans felt duped. I feel bad for fans because I really wish everyone was there. I wish everyone could experience what it’s like to break spring training and break for the big-league club and be in a big-league clubhouse, part of a big-league team. I wish everyone knew what that was like.
“But I’m not asking for sympathy or anything like that. Part of the punishment is being hated by everybody forever. I don’t know what should have been done but something should have (expletive) been done. I do agree with that big time. And I do think it’s good for baseball that they clean it up. I’ve thought about it a (expletive) (expletive)-ton, and I still don’t know how I feel … I understand that it’s not (expletive) good enough to say sorry. I get it.”
Gattis finished out his six year career in Major League Baseball after playing with the Atlanta Braves and the Houston Astros.