Dodgers News: Kenley Jansen Opens Up About Alex Cora’s Apology for Astros Cheating in 2017
One of the toughest moments in Dodgers history was the defeat in the 2017 World Series to the Houston Astros. It felt like the year that the drought would be broken but ultimately the team fell just short, losing in seven games. It took a long time for the fans, players and others to get over the loss but when it came out that the Astros were cheating during the series, it brought back up all the anger and more.
Current Boston Red Sox manager Alex Cora was on the Astros at the time and was one of the masterminds behind the cheating scandal. So when Spring Training opened up this year for Boston, he saw some familiar faces on the team. Former Dodgers Kenley Jansen, Justin Turner and Kikè Hernandez are now members of the Red Sox and Cora addressed them to apologize for 2017. Jansen spoke on the situation:
“I’m going to be 100 percent honest with you, no (expletive), I just felt like I wanted to cry at that moment when he said that,” Jansen told WEEI.com. “It just felt like a weight came off, for him to step and say we (expletive) up as a whole group. Because I felt like that was the best season I ever had in my whole career because I dominated the whole year, dominated the playoffs and the Houston Astros were the only ones who put the ball in play.”
Per WEEI.com
Obviously nothing will change what happened but this is a step in the right direction. That 2017 Dodgers team was a fan favorite and one of the best in recent memory so it can be difficult to still hear about it. Jansen talked about needing to move forward because you can’t change the past.
“It’s over with and you can’t change stuff, but what we can do is appreciate when someone steps up and comes forward and be accountable for what they did. For me, that’s respect. I will respect AC (Alex Cora) forever for that and I will appreciate him forever for that.”
Jansen per WEEI.com
Luckily for the Dodgers, they did end up winning a World Series shortly after the scandal so that likely took some of the pain away. But this team should have been multiple time World Series champions and the narrative of them not being able to win a title in a full season wouldn’t exist. The entire baseball world was robbed due to the Astros situation because it tarnished the game and forever leaves an asterisk on the 2017 World Series.
However, at some point, time heals all. Jansen talked about needed to move forward because you can’t change the past.
“Why should I be mad? If you tell me you don’t make mistakes who are you? We all make mistakes in this world. We learn from it and get better and for him he learned from it and got better. I learned from it also, too. You have to forgive and I forgive him for that. I appreciate him and I love him for that. We can move on.
Jansen per WEEI.com
Despite all the feelings you may have towards Cora, it takes a lot of guts and courage to do that. But Dodger fans aren’t over the Astros scandal and rightfully so.
This apology doesn’t release the anger or the fact that the Astros cheated but it shows the kind of person that Cora really is. The former Dodgers infielder decided it was time to address the situation and it seems to have helped some of the former players deal with the burdens of it all.
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Boo-frickin-hoo. What’s done is done. Grow up and move on. I have little doubt that every team has used some sort of sign-stealing system, some more questionable than others. But the only reason the Dodgers are whining so loud is because Houston did it better than them. If your pitcher serves up a meatball that gets hammered, whose fault is it? Maybe you should look inward. Cora went on to manage Boston in 2018. Amazing how they won the Series that year, now that he admitted he was responsible for a very effective method of sign-stealing, isnt it?
To this day, I laugh every time the Astros visit LA and Altuve gets booed by the ugliest, nastiest fans in the entire country – then proceeeds to knock in run after run. Let me know when you figure out how he does it. OK?
The thing is Nate that the Astros developed a sophisticated and blatantly illegal way to cheat. There is no excuse for that. You can’t say with 100% certainty that the Dodgers would have otherwise won but most likely they would have. They should have been punished as a team. The series title should have been taken away from them. Those directly involved should have been suspended for years or permanently. They deserve every boo they get.
Yeah, sign stealing has always been done but not like this. Frankly Cora’s appology doen’t mean much to me but it’s more that anyone has gotten from Altuve, Correa, or any of the others!
Sombody call the waambulance…waaaaaa!
Ok Dano and Nate just wondering how you would have felt if the situation was reversed. You wouldn’t be bitter? This is Major League Baseball. Pretty much any hitter can hit a pitch if they know what’s coming. The fact that the commissioner of baseball did practically nothing is what pisses me off.Pretty gutless.