HOUSTON (AP) — Detroit Tigers manager A.J. Hinch reflected on the Houston Astros sign-stealing scandal that cost him his job as the team’s manager in his return to Houston on Monday, saying it put a “cloud over the sport.”
Hinch was suspended by baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred for a year in January 2020 and subsequently fired by owner Jim Crane for his role in the scheme that violated rules by using a video camera to steal catchers’ signs during Houston’s run to the 2017 World Series title and again in the 2018 season.
He was hired by the Tigers this off-season and discussed the scandal prior to Monday night’s opener of a three-game series against the Astros.
Asked whether he still takes pride in leading the Astros to their first title in a season tainted by cheating, he gave a long and frank answer acknowledging the team’s wrongdoing.
“I do believe that we did some good things in Houston,” Hinch said. “I do believe we were wrong in the behavior and the decisions that we made in 2017, and it’s hard to have that cloud over the sport and be responsible for that and be the man that was that was the manager that it happened on my watch.”
Hinch spent five seasons in Houston, helping turn around a team that had sunk to embarrassing lows during a rebuild in the years before he arrived. The Astros won more than 100 games in each of his last three seasons, capped by a franchise-best 107 wins in 2019 when they lost to the Washington Nationals in the World Series.
Hinch added that he has largely been quiet in publicly reflecting on his time in Houston because his “relationship with that time is complicated.” He said he’s tried to keep the stain of his actions away from the Tigers since they hired him.
“It’s something I take very…
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