I feel like I should write something about yesterday’s big news, but I’m not sure what and I’m not sure why. I wasn’t the least bit surprised by the MLB sanctions. They were pretty much what I expected. I was, however, more than a bit surprised that Jim Crane took it all a step further and actually fired A.J. Hinch and Jeff Luhnow, even though I think it was the right thing to do.
I’m also not terribly upset by the news. It is what it is. You get to be my age (which admittedly isn’t ancient but definitely older than most of my readers) and you don’t get all that worked up about those things over which you have no control. You just let them slide. And you don’t get all that worked up about those things that don’t result in loss of life or freedom or home. It’s baseball and I love it dearly, but when something goes wrong in baseball, it’s not war or the fate of the country or death and devastation from floods, wildfires, hurricanes, earthquakes, tornadoes and blizzards. Sure, I get pissed off when MLB does something dumb, but I generally bitch about it and move on.
Jeff Luhnow is a grown man. If he didn’t know what was going on on his team (which he should have) or he did and looked the other way, it doesn’t really matter. Manfred made it pretty damn clear that the GM and Field Manager would be held responsible if this crap happened again. It did and he was. Luhnow is very personable and charming and he always treated me well personally. But he had squandered every bit of good will he might have had within the industry over the years. Internally (and now externally if they were fired or otherwise left the fold), there are a whole lot of players, scouts, coaches and other staff that had axes to grind with Luhnow over the way he handled his business. (Sorry, you’ll have to take my word for this. You don’t talk to hundreds of people in the Astros system over Luhnow’s entire tenure without getting a good feel for how people really felt about him. Right or wrong, he wasn’t widely beloved by the insiders.) Externally, many writers and pundits hated his scorched earth rebuild and other facets of the Astros model. And Luhnow’s public mishandling of situations going back to the Brady Aiken/Jacob Nix debacle didn’t help endear him to anyone.
Again, it doesn’t matter who was right and who was wrong. At some point, perception becomes reality. The obfuscation over the Osuna signing was the last straw for many of us. First Luhnow declared that Osuna was remorseful, then Osuna’s lawyer comes out and says he’s not remorseful because he didn’t do anything wrong. Then Osuna does a national print interview basically saying ‘just wait until the case is resolved and I’ll clear up everything.’ And then when the case was resolved, he says nothing. And the Astros throw some money at the local domestic violence charity and pretend that they didn’t insult every single fan who is not particularly happy about hiring someone who has received a massive MLB penalty for domestic violence prior to his case even being resolved. Everything was A-OK and female fans, in particular, were ignored and taken for granted. Add the news that he had to be talked out of drafting confessed child molestor Luke Heimlich and Luhnow no longer gets the benefit of a doubt on his intentions from the vast majority. Again, right or wrong, he was never going to come out of this situation in one piece. And he didn’t.
A.J. Hinch’s situation was a little different. Hinch is truly liked throughout the industry. His statements about this whole situation are gobsmacking. First nothing happened. Then on the record, he knew what was happening but he tried to stop it by busting up a monitor or two, but didn’t actually tell anyone to stop it? That’s horseshit. Either he knew and looked the other way or he knew and someone TOLD HIM to look the other way. Either way, he was a weak leader and shouldn’t be in charge. Personally, I think by trying to keep from throwing people under the bus, he just ended up throwing himself under the bus and made himself look foolish in the process. At least his public response looked sincerely remorseful and apologetic. I honestly feel badly for Hinch. It felt to me like he tried to thread the needle too finely and ended up sticking himself in the eye.
As to Jim Crane, I was shockingly touched by his presser yesterday. Crane is not known for handling the media well. But he appeared sincere and very contrite in his statement and the later Q&A. As surprised as I was initially about his decision to fire Hinch and Luhnow, I really couldn’t see how he could move on with them a year from now. If you temporarily award GM and Field Manager to people and they do well in the positions, do you take that away from them after the season? That makes zero sense to me. And do you really need that baggage after everything that's happened? I think you have to move on and I’m glad that he made that decision. I am, however, more than apprehensive about who Crane will pick for these jobs, though, as I remember back to George Postolos's days as President prior to Reid Ryan (who we really, really need right now by the way).
But none of that really bothers me all that much. I’ve come to expect zero, zilch, nada when it comes to character and honesty in the front office of any team, much as I do for corporate offices, governmental entities, etc. When any of them actually DO show character and honesty, I am more than pleasantly surprised, but I am old enough to know that money and power usually trump character and honesty. It’s not right, but it’s real.
But with that said, there is something from this whole debacle that does bother me. I expect better from individuals that I have met in person. Individuals that I have supported and spent my hard-earned (now hard-saved) money visiting and talking with to tell their stories and help promote them in their quest to make the MLB. When reading the report yesterday, my first thought was this …
This is the part that pisses me off the most. Apparently I'm not the judge of character that I thought I was or some of the guys I knew changed a lot after they got to the bigs. "They knew the scheme was wrong ..." but they did it anyway. https://t.co/eeEhlGkOic— Jayne Hansen (@JayneWTHB) January 13, 2020
The report names no players. Honestly, I think it should. Why should they get off? When the news first came out, my sister was almost in tears as she contemplated the idea of Jose Altuve cheating. She and I talked on the phone again last night. She said to me. “I just want to sit down with Altuve face to face and ask him why? They were so good. Why would they need to cheat? Was I giving my money (we were season ticket holders at the time) to a bunch of cheaters?”
I know that “veteran presence” Carlos Beltran was one of the ringleaders, but not one single player was man enough to tell him to cut it out, to tell him that he wasn’t going to participate? Not one? There comes a time in life when you need to man the hell up and do the right thing even when it’s not easy. Peer pressure is no excuse for doing something that you know is wrong.
Every single player who knew what was going on and didn’t do anything to stop it (whether they participated or not) owes me and you and every player they played against a public apology. They need to prove to me that they are capable of owning up to their mistakes. You want to know who got A.J. Hinch fired? It wasn’t Rob Manfred. It wasn’t Jim Crane. It wasn’t even A.J. Hinch himself despite my earlier comments. It was every single immature, irresponsible player (including Mike Fiers) who let it happen and did nothing to stop it at the time. Yeah, guys, you are directly responsible for the fact that the manager you profess to love is no longer your leader. It’s time to grow up, boys.
Thank you Jayne for putting into words what I'm too pissed off to do right now. I too am more disappointed in the players who knew what they were doing was wrong and continued to do it. I'm also sure the Astros were not the only team using electronic means to steal signs, but that doesn't make it right. I hope the players involved are losing sleep over costing AJ his job and tarnishing what was the greatest era in Astros history.
ReplyDeletenailed it as usual Jayne....The players need to man up and at least honestly answer the expected questions during Fanfest and spring training. Clear the air with honesty, they owe the fans that.
ReplyDeleteI have never read any of your work. I have truly missed out. Well written and easy read. I hope some player, any player will stand up and tell the how, when and why. I don’t mean Fiers, I honestly think he was disgruntled because he wasn’t resigned. But that’s another story. I appreciate your insight. How much you care about baseball is evident.
ReplyDeleteWhat some people think happened: every single player cheated on every single pitch of every single at bat of every single game in the 2017 regular and post season and 1/2 of 2018. Many players may have cheated a few times; many may have cheated a lot; a few may fall in between. But since NO ONE cheated on every pitch we will never know which results were legit and which weren't.
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