By Mike Hogan, Editor in Chief
It took a lot of courage to do what former Houston Astros manager AJ Hinch did during a Feb. 7 interview with MLB Network’s Tom Verducci.
The now former World Series winning manager sat in front of a camera and faced all of the music regarding the sign-stealing fallout, which ultimately left him and two other managers without jobs.
The Astros used an advanced system with cameras, TV monitors, trash cans and cheaters to steal signs from opposing teams’ catchers over the past few seasons and postseasons.
In his interview with Verducci, he was brutally honest and took responsibility for arguably the biggest scandal to ever rock the baseball world. Yes, bigger than the Black Sox scandal of 1919.
Even with Hinch’s forthcoming, his reputation will be and should be tarnished forever. As a baseball purist, I wouldn’t care to see him, or the other fired managers, manage in the MLB again. (New York Mets’ “former manager” Carlos Beltran didn’t manage one game).
The bottom line is, Hinch could’ve done more to stop it. And if he did, maybe he’d be at spring training right now, preparing for another season with the undeniably talented Houston Astros.
In the interview, Hinch told Verducci that he had tried to stop the cheating. He did so by smashing the TV monitors to pieces in the Houston clubhouse not once, but twice.
Did Hinch really think that would end the madness?
While anyone who follows baseball should understand that this shouldn’t all fall on Hinch, he was the only one who had the power to halt the cheating. And what didn’t he do? Call a team meeting. He couldn’t even address his team in the flesh.
As a Major League manager, it’s Hinch’s job to be a leader. It’s clear to me that he wasn’t. He lacked a voice when he needed it most. It’s also clear that most of his players didn’t respect him. After he smashed the monitors, the cheating kept on. If Hinch didn’t have the courage to vocally address cheating issues with his team, serious questions should be raised on how much and what other cheating tactics took place under his watch.
While Hinch was an honest man during his first on-camera interview since his firing, the narrative won’t change. AJ Hinch, once a highly regarded manager around baseball, showed his true colors both in Houston and during the ongoing fallout.
A coward as a leader. A weak man who didn’t have enough courage to save himself or his team from scandal. He tried, but didn’t do enough. And as the voice of an MLB team, he should’ve done more. He even admitted that to Verducci.
If AJ Hinch wants another job as manager elsewhere, he certainly has the credentials. He’s done fairly well for himself, after all.
But there’s no denying that he will need to regain the trust of a lot of people around the league.
He’ll also need to edit his own life.
hoganm17@bonaventure.edu
