The Houston Astros, as you might have heard, had one heck of an offseason. It was found that they cheated a lot over the years by stealing signs, they fired their manager and general manager because of it, and should now be prepping for what will be rightfully be a mess of a year for their players every time they take the field this season.
On Wednesday their pitchers and catchers reported to spring training in West Palm Beach, Fla., which meant we’d finally get to hear from the likes of Justin Verlander and others about this whole scandal, right?
Yeah, no.
The Astros instead hid from all media, blocked off the parking lot at the team’s facility, and acted like this will all go away if they just ignore it.
Pitchers and catchers are reporting today to the Astros’ spring training complex here in West Palm Beach. The team denied facility access to members of the media today, so we won’t hear from any current Houston players until tomorrow.
— Jake Kaplan (@jakemkaplan) February 12, 2020
The Astros said no players will be available today. The area around their parking lot is roped off and heavily guarded by security. https://t.co/FxyV16Z393
— Chandler Rome (@Chandler_Rome) February 12, 2020
What a bunch of cowards.
As I said before, this is going to be a mess of a year for the Astros, as it should be. That’s what happens when you cheat the game and get caught for it.
It’s also what happens when players who cheated don’t get punished for it, which has happened with the Astros because MLB commissioner Rob Manfred is terrible at his job.
Now the Astros are going to start the year off by roping off their parking lot and keeping media out of their facility?
I mean, I’m not in PR but even I know this his a horrific way to kick things off.
The Astros need to be honest and open from Day 1. Guys like Verlander – who had to know what was going on – need to face the media immediately. The franchise needs to be a lot better than this, especially since they had so much time leading up to today to figure out how to handle this situation.
Things are about to get even worse for this team. Just wait until they hit the road this season. You think stadiums around the league are gonna be quiet? You think pitchers aren’t going to be throwing at guys?
This team is going to be swimming in you-know-what for quite some time.
If what they did today is a sign of how they are going to handle things moving forward, then more power to the masses who are going to call them out on it.
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