Former Rangers manager Jeff Banister joined the K&C Masterpiece on 105.3 The Fan [KRLD-FM] to talk about the Astros’ scandal and more. Here are some of the highlights:

On possibly being the Astros’ manager...

Banister: “I was honored to be interviewed for the position. [Houston] is where I grew up, hometown team. I used to sneak into the Astrodome to go watch the Astros play, wore the hat as a kid, it would’ve been a dream come true.”

On what he’d tell the Astros had he been named their manager...

Banister: “My advice to those guys would’ve been ‘let’s focus on what’s real right now, today, and getting ready to play the game of baseball.' Your season is about to start. It’s hard enough to play this game. You start getting caught up with the outside noise, you start getting caught up with the frustration other people feel, you need to allow everybody to feel what they’re going to feel. It was wrong, you got caught, so let’s just draw back, focus in on everybody inside this clubhouse, let’s get ready, stay focused, play the game. We’ll take whatever battle is in front of us on a daily basis. Don’t get too far out in front of yourselves. It’s the simple principles of playing a season anyways, there’s always some adversity that comes down the way. This is just a giant adversity that these guys have to maneuver through.”

On what the Astros will face in light of the sign-stealing scandal...

Banister: “This is a team that’s going to need not just one leader, but multiple leaders to be able to get them through this because this -- I think there are different stages to this. Everybody wants their pound of flesh, if you will. With these guys, some of it is deserved with what has transpired. However, this is still some of the best stars in our game are playing in that uniform. They need to go out and play. There’s going to be challenges in every stadium that they go to and every city they go to and can the leadership step up and keep these guys focused on playing the game and not get caught up with the outside noise?”

On what drives a talented team like the Astros to do what they did...

Banister: "I think it starts as a trickle and all of a sudden the more and more you kind of get away with it and the more success you have, it becomes much bigger than you really think it is. Then you’re at a point where you just can’t get out of it because you can’t help yourself. You feel like it has to happen...

“People are talking about stripping them of their title, right? That’s a hot-button topic. There are people that were talking about we’re going to get our pound of flesh, our revenge by hitting these guys and things like that. I think we’ve got to be careful of some of the things, what we say. Everybody needs to feel their emotions... Criticism is deserved, all of it."

On how the Astros’ sign-stealing helped them...

Banister: “It became easier for them. You still have to hit the baseball. Major league hitters, if they can eliminate the difference of velocity, that back to front, hitting becomes easier because you can eliminate, you can lay off of breaking pitches, secondary pitches that maybe you would’ve swung at before because you know that it’s coming.”

Click here to listen to the full interview.

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