Jim Crane: Astros Sign Stealing 'Didn't Impact the Game'

Houston's owner apologized for the Astros sign-stealing scandal on Thursday alongside infielders Jose Altuve and Alex Bregman.

Astros owner Jim Crane apologized for the team's sign-stealing scandal before the beginning of Spring Training on Thursday. 

Crane stated, "how sorry our team is for what happened," but fell short of acknowledging the effect sign-stealing had on the Astros' 2017 run to the World Series.

"Our opinion is this didn’t impact the game," Crane told the media at the Astros' spring training facility in West Palm Beach, Fla. "We had a good team. We won the World Series and we’ll leave it at that.”

"Our opinion is that this didn't impact the game." - Jim Crane

"I didn't say it didn't impact the game." - Jim Crane 55 seconds later pic.twitter.com/MnpPeeTUPL

— CBS Sports (@CBSSports) February 13, 2020

Crane was then asked whether the sign stealing gave an advantage to Astros' hitters.

“It could possibly do that. It could possibly not," Crane said before the end of Thursday's press conference.

Yankees manager Aaron Boone responded to Crane's comments on Thursday. Boone said, "that's quite a stretch," to assume the Astros didn't gain a competitive advantage from sign stealing, according to The Athletic's Lindsey Adler. 

Houston's owner was joined by manager Dusty Baker as well as players Jose Altuve and Alex Bregman on Thursday. Baker was named the Astros manager on Jan. 29, two weeks after former manager A.J. Hinch was fired for his role in the sign-stealing scandal.

Altuve and Bregman also made brief statements on Thursday. They did not take questions from the media. 

"I want to say that the whole Astros organization and the team feels bad about what happened in 2017," Altuve said. "We feel remorse for the impact on our fans and the game of baseball."