Astros' Jim Crane Responds to Yankees' Cashman on Cheating: 'You Were Doing It, Too'
May 11, 2022
Houston Astros owner Jim Crane believes people who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.
New York Yankees general manager Brian Cashman turned heads in March when he told Andy McCullough of The Athletic the "illegal and horrific" cheating scheme from the Astros was what prevented his team from winning a World Series.
Houston defeated the Yankees in the 2017 American League Championship Series.
"I found his comments to be extremely strange," Crane said, per Bob Nightengale of USA Today. "There's the letter, and you were doing it, too. You were there, dude. What are you talking about?"
As Nightengale explained, the letter he referenced was from MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred and revealed the Yankees also participated in a form of sign-stealing, even though it wasn't as wide-ranging as Houston's.
"If I was one of the teams, and I knew our team was doing it [cheating], I'd keep my mouth shut and just go about our business," Crane added. "But listen, I can only control what's going on here. I can't control what the other guys do."
The Yankees and Boston Red Sox were each punished for their own sign-stealing scandals.
New York was fined $100,000, while Boston lost a 2020 second-round draft pick. A Red Sox video replay monitor was also suspended for the 2020 season.
Yet the punishments came nowhere near those the Astros faced. Major League Baseball fined the organization $5 million, stripped it of its first- and second-round draft picks in 2020 and 2021 and suspended then-general manager Jeff Luhnow and then-manager AJ Hinch for one year.
"I think there was a bigger problem out there, but we caught the brunt of it," Crane said. "We did what we did. We took our punishment. People want somebody to get after it, and we're it."
Houston fired Luhnow and Hinch after the punishments were announced, while the Red Sox fired manager Alex Cora because he was the bench coach for the Astros during the time in question.
Yet Boston rehired Cora last year, and he is the team's current manager.
Despite the punishments, the Astros have continued to thrive on the field. They have been to five straight American League Championship Series and three World Series in that span, infamously winning the 2017 one during the season they were caught cheating.
They are once again in position to compete this year with a 19-11 record, which is good enough for second place in the AL West behind the Los Angeles Angels.