Transcribe your podcast
[00:00:00]

Personally, thank all of our fans, sponsors and the community of Houston for their loyalty and support. I will now turn it over to Alex, who will speak on behalf of the players. OK.

[00:00:14]

Alex is going to give a brief statement followed by wholesale to. Thank you, Jim. I have some brief remarks that I'd like to share with you all. I'm really sorry about the choices that were made by my team, by the organization and by me. I've learned from this and I hope to regain the trust of baseball fans. I would also like to thank the Astros fans for all of their support. We as a team are totally focused on moving forward to the 2020 season.

[00:01:04]

Thank you. Thank you, Jane. Thank you, Alex. I also will be brief. We had a great team meeting last night, and I want to say that the whole hospice organization and the teen are feels bad about what happened in in in 2017. We especially feel remorse for the impact in our fans and the game of baseball. And our team is determined to move forward or to play with intensity and to bring back a championship to Houston in 2020.

[00:01:48]

Thank you. Welcome to the start of spring training. I'm going to go over a few remarks and then I'm going to turn it over to our players, followed by some comments from Dusty Baker here last month when MLB announced the penalties to the Houston Astros. I issued an apology to our fans and the city of Houston. I want to say again how sorry our team is for what happened. I want to also repeat that this will never happen again on my watch.

[00:02:22]

MLB clearly stated that people leading the baseball operation and field operation should be held accountable for these actions. And I agree with them. Our GM and manager were not only suspended for a year. We went above and beyond and fired them. MLB also acknowledged that the players should not be punished for the failure of our leadership. The leaders enabled, condone and did not stock those actions that happened. I also agree that our players should not be punished for these actions.

[00:03:06]

These are a great group of guys who did not receive proper guidance from their leaders. We cannot change the actions of the past, but we are fully committed and moving forward in the right way.

[00:03:28]

I believe a big step in moving forward is with our new GM and manager. We have two men of great character leading our baseball operation, James Klick and Dusty Baker. We'll help our players and our entire organization deliver a competitive team on the field and continue our commitment to Houston and make them proud off the field. I'm very optimistic about this season. We have a great ballclub and I look forward to talking to you all about the future. Finally, I would like to personally thank all of our fans, sponsors and the community of Houston for their loyalty and support.