Astros owner Jim Crane on sign-stealing scandal: 'It weighs on all of us every day'

The Houston Astros and their World Series title in 2017 will always be linked to the sign-stealing scandal. Astros owner Jim Crane admitted that cheating is something everyone on the team regrets. 

“We broke the rules. We got penalized. We were punished. There’s no doubt it weighs on all of us every single day," Crane said, according to USA Today's Bob Nightengale. “But I don’t know what else they want us to do. I mean, you couldn’t do a lot more. We took a big penalty. Rob (Manfred) sent a message. We accepted the message, and went above and beyond.

“We’re sorry. We apologized. But no matter what happened, it wasn’t going to be enough. People wanted me out of baseball. They wanted players to be suspended. They wanted everything.’’

Crane's comments come after Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Joe Kelly was suspended eight games for throwing at both Alex Bregman and Carlos Correa on Tuesday. Kelly's actions resulted in the benches clearing and since coronavirus concerns are high, MLB decided to send a message. 

Kelly's eight game suspension was controversial, as no Astros players were suspended for their involvement in the 2017 cheating scandal. 

The Astros were fined $5 million for the scandal. Both A.J. Hinch and Jeff Luhnow received one-year bans that resulted in their firing from the organization. 

A majority of players in MLB have been highly critical of the Astros since the scandal was announced. Cincinnati Reds pitcher Trevor Bauer even wore a "Trash-Town" T-shirt recently which references how the Astros used trash cans to steal signs. 

Chicago Cubs pitcher Yu Darvish also owns the shirt, and you can bet that plenty of other stars around the league either have the shirt or something similar to it.