 A.J., what do you think of the allegations you guys were using whistles to try to gain some kind of advantage? Man, I'm glad you asked that question. And I thought it would come up today. And it's, you know, we talked about this the other day. And in reality, it's a joke, but, you know, Major League Baseball does a lot to ensure the fairness of the game. There's people everywhere. If you go through the dugouts and the clubhouses and the hallways, there's, like, so many people around that are doing this. And then, you know, when I get contacted about some questions about whistling, it made me laugh because it's ridiculous. And had I known that it would take something like that to set off the Yankees or any other team, we would have practiced it in spring training. And we would have got, you know, it apparently works when it doesn't happen. So to me, I understand the gamesmanship. I understand kind of creating a narrative for yourself or wondering how things are going. Now, the game in question, you know, we got three hits and no runs. And so, you know, nobody heard it. You guys have audio, video, people in places and nothing. And there's no evidence of anything. So to the Yankees, you know, there's no nothing bad going on. Pitch tipping is a little bit of a different story. If you don't want us to know the pitch is coming, don't do something that demonstrates what pitch you're going to pitch or what you're going to throw, but they're doing the same thing. So every hitter wants to know what's coming by virtue of what a pitcher is doing or not doing. The problem that I have is when other people take shots at us outside this competition. You know, when you guys ask me this question, my, you know, my face, my name is by my quotes, my opinions, my reaction is all for you guys to tweet out and put on the broadcast. But we have people that are unnamed or you guys have sources that are giving you information. I suggest they put their name by it if they're so passionate about it to comment about my team or my players. There's nothing going on other than the competition on the field. The fact that I had to field the question before a really, really cool game out of Yankee Stadium is unfortunate, but we can put it to rest. It'll be the last question I answer about pitch tipping or pitch stealing. We now know that to not be true. The Astros hit with severe sanctions by the commissioner, Rob Banford. We know that AJ Hinch dismissed from the team, banned for a year. We bring in our Yes Network colleague David Cone now. You heard that coming in, David. He was kind of poo-pooing it in mid-October, but the reality hit him hard today. What are your thoughts on the fallout? Yeah, just listening to that, that audio right there from AJ Hinch. Well, you could really hear the emotion in his voice and, you know, a strong protest. And I guess there's the old Shakespearean line, right? That protest too much. So, you know, maybe it was a little foretelling, but he paid the ultimate price. Who knows what his career happens from now on out. He certainly is out for a year. He's fired from the Astros. It's a strong statement from Major League Baseball and a strong statement from the ownership of the Astros. And Jim Crane's press conference was very emotional too, as well, along with Jeff Lunow, obviously the general manager out. There was a strong press conference from an owner who took it a step further than what even what Major League Baseball brought down today. Well, David, give me your thoughts on that, what the commissioner did, what Jim Crane, the owner of the Astros did. Did you think it was appropriate? Did you think it was too severe? Give me your thoughts. Well, you know, I think right off the top, I was surprised. I really was. I did not realize that Rob Manfred would come down that hard and also Jim Crane on top of it, doubling down. So I am surprised a bit. I thought that the defense that, you know, everybody was doing it. We were just, it was kind of the Wild Wild West. I thought that would probably, you know, have a little more, a little more relevance in terms of their defense. But Rob Manfred obviously had heard enough. His investigation was very thorough. And I thought a year's suspension for both of them was pretty strong in my opinion, and the industry thought maybe it could have been stronger. You know, I know that it's debatable at this point, but I thought it was pretty strong. And the fact that the owner, Jim Crane, doubled down, as I said, really made a statement to me. David, you've been a strong player advocate during and after your career. In that audio clip that we heard, AJ Hinn said, well, why doesn't someone come forward and put their name on it? Mike Fires did. He was a big source for the athletics story in baseball circles. Mike Fires a hero, or is Mike Fires a pariah? Both. It depends on what side of the fence you are. I'm sure there are some within the industry that will think that, you know, that he broke a code to a certain extent. I'm sure there are several players that will feel that way. And then there were other players that will feel that he was honest and showed integrity and did what he had to do. And it took a lot of courage to come out and do what he had to do. I think a lot of these issues will follow along the lines of pitcher-hitter. If you're a pitcher, you're going to be certain. There's going to be a certain bias within you that that feels like you were robbed. And if you're a hitter, you're going to feel maybe a little differently. You have your own bias, you know, within you as a hitter and the mentality of a hitter. So I really think this may break down on partisan lines, as they say, between hitter and pitcher. And of note, I think, is that Jim Crane, Astros, was a college pitcher. So, you know, I think there might be a little bit of pitcher bias, too, in terms of his thinking and how you view this whole situation. David, want to read an excerpt from the ruling as it pertains to A.J. Hinch. This is what the statement was. Hinch neither devised the banging scheme nor participated in it. Hinch attempted to signal his disapproval of the scheme by physically damaging the monitor on two occasions necessitating its replacement. However, Hinch admits he did not stop it and he did not notify players or Quora that he disapproved of it even after the Red Sox were disciplined in September 2017. As the person with the responsibility for managing his players and coaches, there simply is no justification for Hinch's failure to act. Although I appreciate his remorsefulness, I must hold him accountable for the conduct of his team, particularly since he had full knowledge of the conduct and chose to allow it to continue in 2017 post-season. I want your thoughts on that specifically because it seems like it could have taken one very simple five-second conversation with the team. We're not doing this anymore. Hinch never delivered that message. Yes. It's a little bit weak. That part of the report definitely comes across as weak because there's no way you can be a manager and hear a banging on a trash can and not be fully aware of what's going on. If you're in that Houston Astros dugout, you had to know what was going on. You had to be a part of it. You're complicit. I understand that A.J. Hinch said in his interviews with Rob Manfred that he messed up, but it's more than that. You were complicit. If you're fully complicit, you've got to come fully clean. I'll give him a little bit of the benefit of the doubt because we weren't in that interview room and what he told investigators, but that particular part of the report comes off as a little weak in my mind. David, you've been a part of plenty of teams that have had to deal with controversy, had to deal with some scandal. How do you think this Astro team moving forward is going to be able to handle all of this? Well, I think in some sense, Jim Crane did what he felt he had to do and just clear the decks. There's no waiting. There's no manager and interim. There's no talk about this the whole year. What happens when A.J. Hinch comes back or Jeff Lew now? That is all a mood point. In some ways, he set the tone right away and made a very decisive decision so that allows the Astros to begin the process of putting it behind them, but this will forever be in the annals for them because they won the World Series in 2017. The one thing about this report that I think was new was that it was proved for the first time that they used it in the postseason and if you look at the Yankees and Astros postseason and how different of a team they were at home, where they won all the games against the Yankees and when the Yankees played them in Yankee Stadium they look like a completely different team and that includes chasing breaking balls out of the zone. Well, that's something that will never ever be forgotten, certainly not by Yankee. Yeah, it will stick to that 2017, no doubt. David, thanks for taking the time. Look forward to seeing you again in a few months of the 2020 season.