WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — It impacted the greatest season in Astros history during the year of Hurricane Harvey.

It directly impacted statistics, games and careers.

It impacted the only World Series that Houston’s professional baseball team has ever won.

And because of it, Jim Crane’s Astros will never be the same.

So when the owner who hired Jeff Luhnow and A.J. Hinch — and green-lit an unprecedented rebuild that ultimately resulted in an unprecedented sign-stealing scandal — said this Thursday morning at The Ballpark of the Palm Beaches, there really was nothing left to say.

“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,” said Crane, as TV cameras zeroed in and the baseball world intently listened to everything the Astros said.

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Translation:

We won. You lost. Get over it.

We cheated; we keep admitting it. But you can’t do anything else about it, Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred already issued his report, and no one is taking away our precious trophy.

“I didn’t say it didn’t impact the game,” Crane then said, immediately backtracking during a press conference that cemented the Astros’ standing as the most ridiculed team in pro sports. “As the commissioner said in his report, he’s not going to go backwards.”

The one constant for the Astros since Crane bought the team in 2011: The Astros have never won a public relations championship.

The clubhouse apology tour that followed was significantly more sincere. After Jose Altuve and Alex Bregman issued brief, wooden statements behind a podium, two of the Astros’ biggest stars opened up in front of their lockers.

It felt like it was the last thing in the world that the self-made Altuve wanted to do. But it had to be done, and the only thing to do was get it over.

Justin Verlander also answered question after question. George Springer stood in front of a wall as TV camera lights glared. Josh Reddick tried to make sense of so much that still doesn’t make sense.

The Astros were talented enough that they didn’t need to cheat, Reddick said. But they did, and who knows how long it will take to repair their image?

But within all the forthright and forced apologies on the first official day of spring training for the 2020 season, all the key remaining voices from a 2017 team that lifted Houston to its highest peak never offered to give back the trophy.

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

You can say that season and a formerly golden era are forever tarnished. I can keep writing Astros*. But a golden pennant still remains attached to the left-field light pole inside Minute Maid Park, the orange star and white H that decorate the team’s sparkling spring training complex are still accentuated by a sign that reads 2017 world champions, and MLB still recognizes those Astros as the best team in baseball that season.

“Everyone can draw their own conclusion at the end of the day,” pitcher Lance McCullers Jr. said. “There were a lot of things that I think guys aren’t going to get into, as far as that season and that postseason. But I can stand here and firmly believe that we earned that championship.”

Verlander said a ton Thursday. But in the clarity of the now, did he feel different about his only World Series title?

“Personally, I don’t,” Verlander said. “I think everyone is able to draw their own conclusions and have their own opinions.”

Would the Astros have won it all in 2017 without cheating?

Impossible to answer, he said.

Do the Astros feel compelled to apologize or say anything to the New York Yankees or Los Angeles Dodgers?

“No,” Verlander said. “We’re here (Thursday) to talk about ourselves.”

There were moments that simmered as national reporters pushed for more than the Astros were ever going to offer.

New general manager James Click appeared unconnected and off the grid when he was asked about remaining top-level members of the Astros’ front office recently mentioned in detailed Wall Street Journal reports. New manager Dusty Baker was again forced to play the calm, cool, nice-guy role, despite the fact he had nothing do with the 2016-19 Astros.

But the hint of electronic buzzing devices fizzled out, and there was no real news on the day when the Astros’ players finally spoke en masse and the franchise kicked off 2020 by looking back at 2017 for the final time.

“We broke the rules, and you can phrase that however you want,” said Crane, who continued to blame Luhnow and Hinch despite the Astros’ players driving the once top-secret operation.

Haters wanted so much more.

Fierce Astros loyalists kept wanting it all to go away.

The truth is that the only apology that would have made a lasting difference would have been the Astros’ placing the 2017 World Series trophy on top of the podium, insisting the championship belonged to someone else, and refusing to answer any follow-up questions.

That was never, ever going to happen. Especially after Manfred went light on the Astros and Crane was forced to tell his former skipper and GM they were fired.

On the day the Astros finally spoke, they still held two powerful titles. The most hated team in sports. And 2017 World Series champs.

They cheated. They won it all. It’s time to start moving on. Somehow.