Former Astros player Evan Gattis doesn't hold back on talking about cheating scandal

Former Houston Astros baseball player Evan Gattis didn't shy away from talk on the team's cheating scandal in a recent podcast interview.

In a nearly two-hour interview with the "'Stros Across the Globe" podcast, Gattis said he was a big advocate of the Astros' widely-criticized system during their World Series championship season. He also said that he and his teammates thought they weren't doing anything wrong because other teams were doing it too.

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"There's people in our clubhouse who have had to call other people from the Dodgers clubhouse and say 'Why you gotta be like that?'" he said.

He said other teams didn't speak up because they didn't want Major League Baseball to look into what they were doing.

It's not the first time the retired player has spoken out about the scandal. In 2020, Gattis told another podcast he felt bad for fans.

"Everybody wants to be the best player in the f---ing world, man," Gattis, who has since retired, told The Athletic's "755 Is Real" podcast. "And we cheated that, for sure. And we obviously cheated baseball and cheated fans. Fans felt duped. I feel bad for fans."

Astros manager AJ Hinch and general manager Jeff Luhnow were given one-year bans and subsequently fired following an investigation by Major League Baseball. That probe confirmed the Astros had cheated by using a camera-based sign-stealing system during the 2017 regular season and playoffs and during part of the 2018 regular season.

Gattis, a Dallas-area native, became a free agent after the 2018 season and retired from professional baseball.

ESPN contributed to this report.