On Wednesday, another star from Major League Baseball weighed in on the Houston Astros’ sign-stealing scandal.
While New York Yankees slugger Giancarlo Stanton was not part of the 2017 Yankees squad that was possibly robbed of a trip to the World Series, he had reason to contribute an opinion. Therefore, Stanton talked about what he would have done during a monstrous (and clean) 2017 season if he knew every pitch like the Astros’ players did.
Giancarlo Stanton: I would've hit 80 home runs if I cheated like Astros https://t.co/5tgITResBU pic.twitter.com/FxHUSsWkhk
— New York Post (@nypost) February 19, 2020
While Stanton clarified that the statement he made wasn’t to make it about himself, he tried to put it in perspective for fans.
“If I knew what [pitch] was coming in ’17, I probably would have hit 80-plus home runs.”
That 2017 season, he hit 59 home runs and drove in 132 runs. To say the least, he was locked in most of the year.
Next, Stanton clarifies why he made that analogy.
“The point I was trying to make is that if I was part of that team and got the home run record doing that, there’s no way that would be upheld and not have asterisks or taken away. So neither should their accolades, is what I was getting at with that.”
Surely it could be a bit of an exaggeration. For instance, some players might not prefer to know a pitch is coming or not; it creates too much thinking instead of just reacting. Still, it exhibits the point that marquee players and veterans around the game believe the Astros got away with a highway robbery here.
