"I'm sorry." Two powerful yet simple words that shouldn't be so hard to say.
Mistakes happen every day. Some more dire than the previous mishap, but they can be digested most of the time if the proper response to given. A response as simple as, "I'm sorry."
Over the course of the past couple weeks, since the hammer was dropped on the Houston Astros organization for sign-stealing in the World Series, players have had an opportunity to speak on the matter: Alex Bregman and even former Astros like Dallas Keuchel this week. The timing of the penalties couldn't have come at a better time, right at the dawn of a brand new season.
A time when players gather with fans to celebrate the launch of a new year and chance to win it all. This past weekend at the Hyatt in downtown St. Louis was another festive and exciting celebration of St. Louis Cardinals baseball: the past, present, and future being welded together for three days.
Meanwhile, the Astros are going through the same thing. There was a fan fest in Houston last weekend as well, and fans were adamant about taking the high road and just moving on. I'm sorry, people, but that's just not acceptable or the proper response.
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The Houston Astros need to be schooled on how to properly apologize. They have no problem wearing wires or taking a shortcut to success on a professional baseball field, but finding sorry in their word repertoire is apparently difficult practice. Bregman had no problem standing at the plate and knowing what pitch was coming towards the plate because it was going to help his batting average and his team win.
But he couldn't find the easy words in front of the media, just 45 different ways of saying Major League Baseball came to their decision and that's that.
Keuchel took the act one step closer to fool's gold, trying to play it off as the state of baseball at the time. Now, I'll give the pitcher credit for saying he was personally sorry, but he was talking about what's come of the situation and not the cause for this situation. He also talked about being not happy with former Astros pitcher, Mike Fiers, who first admitted to reporters the sign-stealing methods. Yeah, Dallas, no one likes when cheaters are told on.
You see, in my opinion, the Astros form of cheating is worse than steroids and performance-enhancing drugs. Those give the human body an advantage, whether it comes to healing from an injury or being able to achieve a larger physical level of athletic output. Those have given some players an unfair advantage to an extent, but sign-stealing is another level of wrongdoing. Manipulating the internal game practice by staging a device to help your ENTIRE team perform better and win is downright bad. Wrong on every level. That's a notch below PED for me.
The least the Astros can do is not defer to MLB decision-making or try to relate it to a trend in the game. Just say you spilled a drink that stained the sanctuary that everyone knows as the field of play. You made a mess and it won't be clean for a long time, so say sorry for that.
They are powerful words. Just look at Cardinals third baseman Matt Carpenter admitting this past weekend to the media that he apologized for simply not being good at his job last season. The public perception of Carpenter changed inside a day in Cardinal Nation, with many of his detractors bypassing the impasse and accepting a down year from a vet.
The Houston Astros debacle is different for sure, but it still relates to remorse and accountability. All they have to do is say sorry, little else, and get on with the game. The future seasons will be judgment enough for you, but for the time being, just keep it simple and stop making excuses.
Thanks for reading.
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