WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — The most interesting thing that Houston Astros owner Jim Crane said on Thursday morning at the team’s apology news conference is that the sign-stealing scheme they engaged in during their championship 2017 season “didn’t impact the game.”
It was notable because just minutes later he claimed he didn’t say that — despite the dozen television cameras and several dozen reporters’ tape recorders that caught him in the act — and because it was all but demonstrably false. The Astros cheated because they thought it would help them win, and they did win.