The Big Lead

Evan Gattis Says the Astros 'F***ed Up' By Stealing Signs

By Ryan Phillips

Evan Gattis bats for the Houston Astros against the Baltimore Orioles
Evan Gattis bats for the Houston Astros against the Baltimore Orioles / G Fiume/Getty Images
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Evan Gattis has given the most forceful apology by a Houston Astros player for the team's sign-stealing scandal that rocked Major League Baseball. The now-retired Gattis was a catcher and designated hitter when the Astros won the World Series in 2017 while stealing signs. In an interview released Thursday by The Athletic's 755 Is Real podcast, Gattis put it quite simply by saying, "we f***ed up."

Gattis said the team, "got so f***ing caught up" that, "we f***ed up" and, in the end, deserve the punishment they'll receive.

Here's more from the podcast:

"“Everybody wants to be the best player in the f***ing world, man … and we cheated that, for sure, and we obviously cheated baseball and cheated fans. Fans felt duped. I feel bad for fans. I’m not asking for sympathy or anything like that. If our punishment is being hated by everybody forever, just like, whatever. I don’t know what should be done, but something had to f***ing be done. I do agree with that, big-time. I do think it’s good for baseball that we’re cleaning it up. … And I understand that it’s not f***ing good enough to say sorry. I get it.”"

- Evan Gattis on 755 Is Real

For Gattis to come out and admit the Astros cheated and that it was wrong, and to do so that strongly is certainly a breakthrough. It wasn't a weak prepared statement, it was a forceful admission and apology.

He later blew up the notion that someone -- a fellow player or a coach -- pushed the team to cheat. He said they all knew what they were doing was wrong, though some players did have influence.

Perhaps the biggest kicker was this:

"“We didn’t look at our moral compass and say this is right.It was almost like paranoia warfare or something. But what we did was wrong. Don’t get it twisted: It was wrong for the nature of competition, not even just baseball.”"

- Evan Gattis on 755 Is Real

The entire podcast with Gattis is great and I highly recommend it, but obviously the Astros cheating stuff is the most important and shocking section.