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Author’s Note:

Contrary to ThinkBlueLA.com‘s strict policy regarding the use of profanity, this article contains numerous profanity-laden quotes that have not been edited.

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Late Thursday morning, The Athletic posted a link on Twitter to an article written by David O’Brien which stemmed from an hour (plus)-long podcast interview with former Astros catcher Evan Gattis earlier in the week on The Athletic’s “755 Is Real” podcast. And while some may consider it commendable that the now retired 33-year-old Dallas, TX native finally ‘came clean’ in his profanity-laden apology, it is absolutely meaningless absent his former team’s (and MLB commissioner Rob Manfred’s) willingness to vacate the 2017 World Series title and trophy.

“I don’t think I can win the hearts over of anyone right now at all, or maybe ever,” said Gattis to begin the two-part podcast. “I don’t know how to feel yet. I don’t think anybody … we didn’t look at our moral compass and say, ‘Yeah, this is right.’ It was almost like paranoia warfare or something. But what we did was wrong. Like, don’t get it twisted. It was wrong for the nature of competition, not even just baseball. Yeah, that was wrong. I will say that.

“For some players that we faced, that I’d never faced before or something like that, even selfishly we didn’t get to find out how good those people are; and they didn’t either,” Gattis added. “I think that was the one cool thing about playing in the big leagues, was just to find out how good you are, which I think is valuable. Everybody wants to be the best player in the fucking world, man, and we cheated that for sure. We obviously cheated baseball and cheated fans. Fans felt duped. I feel bad for fans.”

Sure you do.

Do you feel bad enough to give back the near half-million ($438,901.57) World Series share you stole for cheating? Do you feel bad enough to give back the World Series title and trophy?

But wait… there’s more; this time a half-hearted plea for sympathy.

“If our punishment is being hated by everybody forever, then (so be it),” Gattis said. “And I don’t know what should have been done, but something had to be fucking done. And I do agree with that, big time. I do think it’s good for baseball if we clean it up. But I really don’t know to this day, and I’ve thought about it a shit ton, know what I mean? And I still don’t know how to feel.

“I’ll get ripped by somebody – ‘That’s not an apology’ – and if I do apologize, that’s still not going to be good enough. No shit, it’s not going to be good enough. I understand that it’s not fucking good enough to say ‘sorry.’ I get it.”

Guilt and shame might be a good place to start, Evan.

And here’s the irony – Gattis said that he harbors no ill will towards pitcher Mike Fiers, the first 2017 cheating Astros player to come clean.

“With Fiers, he had something to say, dude,” Gattis said. “It probably started out with him saying exactly what he said – some of these guys coming into the league, they don’t fucking know yet that this shit goes on. And I respect that. And he had something to say. So, he had to fucking say it. And then we had to get punished. Because if not, then what? It’ll get even more out of control.

“I mean, it’s a tough subject, which … yeah. I think a lot of people feel duped. And I understand that.”

The four Astros players who eventually did come clean during MLB’s investigation – including Fiers – described the use of a center-field camera and a TV monitor placed in a hallway adjacent to the Astros’ dugout. They would then transmit the stolen signs to the batter by bagging on a trash can located next to the dugout to indicate if the pitch was going to be a fastball or an off-speed pitch.

“We did (use the system),” Gattis said. “That’s a fact. And that’s on the wall. Part of me is really glad that that’s out there as public knowledge, and it’s accurate. … I think that’s what MLB kind of wanted us to do with the investigation, too – or at least I hope so – is to find out what the fuck is going on.”

As far as (nearly) everyone being given immunity in exchange for telling the truth during MLB’s investigation, the foul-mouthed catcher had mixed feelings about that. (Go figure).

“I don’t know if immunity was right or not, I really don’t because I’m part of that shit,” Gattis explained. “But I’m not in the same position as other people are now (who are still playing). And that’s the reason why I didn’t speak whenever the investigation was going on, because other people had jobs at stake, and I wasn’t going to be the guy that just went around and pointed a finger at myself and then pointed a finger at everybody else. I don’t think it was my place.”

Of course you didn’t.

Rather than continue on with Gattis’ pathetic attempt to try to explain and justify the unjustifiable, allow me to leave you with this sobering thought:

At some point, Evan Gattis and every member of the Astros organization who knowingly participated in the cheating scandal will have to answer to a source much higher than Rob Manfred or any other mortal human being. And if I’m Evan Gattis, I would be terrified of this.

…F-bombs notwithstanding.

Play Ball!

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