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Bang the Can, Blame ‘The Man,’ says Beltran

G-Fafif Apr 03 2022 09:23 AM

Former Mets manager Carlos Beltran says some in-house higher-up should have stopped him and his Astro teammates from their clever sign-stealing scheme, but nobody did, so they just kept on banging their can to victory. In his first interview since the Astros sign-stealing scandal, former outfielder and recently hired YES Network analyst Carlos Beltrán said on his new network that the 2017 Astros “felt in our hearts that we were being more efficient and smarter than any team out there.” “We all did what we did,” Beltrán said on CenterStage with Michael Kay, per a YES Network transcript of the program, which airs Monday. “Looking back today, we were wrong.” Beltrán pointed the finger at his bosses in Houston, suggesting the players would have listened to a demand to stop the scheme. At the same time, Beltrán suggested it would have been impractical for the players to stop themselves from cheating when they believed the scheme was working. “A lot of people always ask me why you didn't stop it,” Beltrán said. “And my answer is, I didn't stop it the same way no one stopped it. This is working for us. Why you gonna stop something that is working for you? So, if the organization would've said something to us, we would've stopped it for sure.” As The Athletic first reported, Beltrán helped devise the Astros' sign-stealing scheme that linked a camera in center field to a video screen situated in the tunnel, steps from the dugout. Astros players and staff would watch the video screen and communicate what pitch was coming to their hitters in real time at Astros home games in 2017, often by banging on a garbage can with a baseball bat. Beltrán suggested there was no communication between the Astros front office in September 2017 about a warning commissioner Rob Manfred issued to all teams that month, saying that his office would treat electronic sign-stealing more seriously moving forward. Manfred cited the insufficient relay of that message in the league's announcement of its findings. “Well, if they (the Astros front office) got the letter, they knew, but they never shared it with us,” Beltrán said. “Nobody said anything to us, you know, nobody said anything. I wish somebody would've said something.” Athletic (paywall) story: https://theathletic.com/3226834/2022/04/03/no-one-stopped-it-carlos-beltran-addresses-astros-sign-stealing-scandal/

kcmets Apr 03 2022 09:38 AM Re: Bang the Can, Blame ‘The Man,’ says Beltran

“Looking back today, we were wrong.” -- very big of you! I like Carlos, wish he was doing something Metly instead of YESly. Public service announcement: I got a six month subscription to The Athletic last month for $1.00/mo if anyone is interested.

Edgy MD Apr 03 2022 11:25 AM Re: Bang the Can, Blame ‘The Man,’ says Beltran

Don't hate the playa. Hate the game. Not very mature, but probably an honest expression of what most players' attitudes are or would have been. I would kind of hope for more buck-stopping and less buck-passing from a manager, though.

Frayed Knot Apr 04 2022 08:00 PM Re: Bang the Can, Blame ‘The Man,’ says Beltran

This all sounds to me like something Beltran was required to say as a condition for the evil empire rescuing him from exile and granting him employment. After all, they were the 'victims' of Astro cheating and one of those cheaters is just now 'voluntarily' admitting so. Cashman also was coincidentally talking about this subject in the past week, essentially declaring that their WS-less streak since 2009 doesn't count because they Yanx would have been the obvious champions in 2017 had the chicanery not occurred. And maybe he's right, maybe the NL team that year would have recognized the wisdom of that statement and wisely chosen to withdraw from the series rather than take the inevitable drubbing.