Oct 27, 2019; Washington, DC, USA; Houston Astros shortstop Carlos Correa (1) and second baseman Jose Altuve (27) celebrate after beating the Washington Nationals in game five of the 2019 World Series at Nationals Park. Mandatory Credit: Brad Mills-USA TODAY Sports
MLBThe AthleticBy Sean Keeley on

The Houston Astros were very good at cheating, at least for a while. The Houston Astros are not very good at apologizing for cheating.

Rightfully, a lot of people have been piling on as members of the Astros’ ownership, staff, and lineup either attempt to pass the buck, play down the effect, deny they did it, or just stay quiet and hope it all goes away. Members of the media and fellow MLB players have all gone on the offensive to take down the Astros for not only cheating but for the way they’ve handled the aftermath.

One such player is the reigning National League MVP, Los Angeles Dodgers’ centerfielder Cody Bellinger. Bellinger didn’t hold back recently, calling Astros owner Jim Crane’s apology “weak” and saying “[Jose] Altuve stole an MVP from [Aaron] Judge in 2017. Everyone knows they stole the ring from us. But it’s over.”

That appeared to cross a line for Astros shortstop Carlos Correa, who sat down with MLB Network for an interview on Saturday and said, per The Athletic, that people like Bellinger don’t know what they’re talking about. While he did once again admit that the sign-stealing was “wrong,” he then went off on all the reasons why everything else that people seem to think about the scandal was incorrect (somehow?).

Along with defending the Astros’ World Series championship and saying people are misinformed about when the cheating happened and how much it impacted games, Correa seemed the most heated about anything directed in Altuve’s direction. He even went as far as to say that when Altuve would hear the trash can banging that acted as a signal to Astros’ hitters, the 2017 AL MVP would refuse to participate.

“He would say, ‘I don’t want this. I can’t hit like this. Don’t you do that to me,'” Correa said. “He played the game clean.”

The most damning evidence against Altuve is footage of him running towards home plate after hitting the home run that sent the Astros to the World Series in 2017. He gestures to his teammates not to pull his shirt off because of something underneath, presumably a wire that was tipping him off to pitches. He even goes as far as to hold his shirt tight to prevent anyone from opening it. He also seems to be telling his teammates that he has something on underneath his shirt.

Not so, says Correa! Yes, Altuve didn’t want his jersey taken off, but according to Correa, it had nothing to do with a hidden wire and everything to do with an…unfinished tattoo?

“…he doesn’t want me to talk about this but I’m going to say it…he’s got an unfinished tattoo on his collarbone, that honestly looks terrible. It was a bad tattoo and he didn’t want nobody to see it. He didn’t want to show it at all.”

So, uh…we’re gonna need to see that tattoo, buddy.

https://twitter.com/JATayler/status/1228733843844276224

So now we wait. Either Jose Altuve is going to magically show up with a collarbone tattoo that doesn’t seem to have existed six months ago or, and hear us out on this, that’s just more bullshit.

But hey, if you can’t trust the Houston Astros, who can you trust?

[The Athletic]

About Sean Keeley

Along with writing for Awful Announcing and The Comeback, Sean is the Editorial Strategy Director for Comeback Media. Previously, he created the Syracuse blog Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician and wrote 'How To Grow An Orange: The Right Way to Brainwash Your Child Into Rooting for Syracuse.' He has also written non-Syracuse-related things for SB Nation, Curbed, and other outlets. He currently lives in Seattle where he is complaining about bagels. Send tips/comments/complaints to sean@thecomeback.com.

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