The Houston Astros are cheaters.

And they have shown little genuine remorse.

Why should they? It’s not like Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred is going to do anything truly effective to make them sorry.

It’s not like Jose Altuve is going to get an indefinite ban for so obviously and wantonly hiding a buzzer that signalled to him what pitch was coming under his jersey during the 2017 postseason.

It’s not like Alex Bregman is going to receive a similar ban for benefitting from the Astros extensive and sophisticated sign-stealing scheme that would have made the old KGB envious.

It’s not like the Astros’ World Series title is going to get stripped.

The manager and general manager were fired. Draft picks were lost. A fine was levied. That was it.

It was baseball’s equivalent of a slap on the wrist and wink that says, “Don’t do it again.”

The Astros played lip-service to the scandal Thursday in a press conference.

Some stars of the team said all the right things.

Bregman: “I am really sorry about the choices that were made by my team, by the organization and by me. I have learned from this and I hope to regain the trust of baseball fans.”

George Springer: “We are all responsible.”

Justin Verlander: “Once I spent some time and understood what was happening, I wish I had said more. I can’t go back and reverse my decision. I wish I had said more, and I didn’t.”

It came across as hollow and insincere.

They aren’t sorry they cheated. They are sorry they cheated and got caught. They are sorry their reputation is besmirched and their championship is sullied.

Houston’s title should be questioned. Like the steroid scandal before it, it’s difficult to really quantify how much the sign-stealing actually helped.

But if it didn’t help them significantly, then why did they keep doing it, especially to the extent the Astros took it?

That’s the only question that needs to be asked.

And he answer is obvious.

It did help them. A lot. They kept doing it because it helped them. A lot. Sometimes one hit, one pitch can change a game. How many games were changed because Altuve and his teammates knew what pitch was coming?

The brazenness of the cheating is also startling.

It didn’t help when Astros’ owner Jim Crane said this Thursday: “Our opinion is that this didn’t impact the game. We had a good team. We won the World Series and we’ll leave it at that.”

The Astros did no favors Thursday with their half-hearted mea culpa.

All it did was further illustrate that they have no true remorse.

They should be refered to as the Houston Asterisks from now on.

Mike Kilroy is a staff writer for the Butler Eagle.