The Houston Astros is one of the thirty teams in Major League Baseball who used electronic technology to steal signs which resulted in their win of the World Series Championship in 2017. Astros were always suspected of stealing signs for more than four years, but there was no concrete evidence till 2019. When former team pitcher Mike Fiers leaked to The Athletic about the illicit practice of his team during the world series.
The reporter’s Ken Rosenthal and Evan Drellich published a detailed article about how the team used electronic gadgets and unethical processes to gain an unfair advantage. The Athletic published that the team used a video camera in the center field to film opposing catchers and signal their batter about the next pitch. And After this Major League basketball Association opened an investigation against the team.
Background Surrounding The Scandal
Sign stealing is not considered an unethical process. It has been part of the game for many years. And many players and coaches use it too. But Major League Baseball, however, has always put a thin line regarding the rules of sign stealing. And using any kind of technology has always been prohibited.
In 1961, National League barred the usage of mechanical gadgets and devices. Another notice was released in 2001 stating that teams cannot use electronic equipment for stealing signs. But even after the notification Boston Red Sox, in 2017, were fined for using smartwatches to steal signs. And later, the commissioner of the Major league issued an open statement to all 30 clubs with a warning that any team caught using electronic gadgets will be subject to serious penalties and sanctions and harsh punishment, including dismissal of draft picks.
After the scandal broke, the President of baseball operations for the Dodgers stated that one of the Houston Astros employees was found taking pictures of their dugout illegally during the 2018 American League. And later, the same man was found taking pictures of the Red Sox dugout pictures without their permission.
The New York Yankees demanded to investigate the whistling sound and blinking lights that were made during the game to warn the batters of the Astros about the next pitch. But the Manager of Huston Astros, A.J Hinch, denied the allegation by stating ‘It made me laugh because it’s ridiculous.”
Major League Baseball (MLB) Investigation Report
In the days after the “The Athelitc” article was published on the internet. Journalists and many fans from other clubs started their own investigation and started digging for more information and released it to the public through different social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube, which forced the MLB to start their own investigations before the situation got out of their control. Major league Baseball put its own task force who were looking into the malpractices of the Astros during the 2017 and 2018 season playoffs.
You Can Also Check: “Why Did Tom Brady Leave the Patriots”
After combing through more than 70000 emails and documents and months of interviews with all the personnel in the Astros team. On January 13th of 2020, they announced the team did use unauthorized methods to gain an advantage over other teams by using electronic gadgets to steal signs. The report submitted to the public by MLB clearly stated that one of the members of the Astros team would watch the live feed on the monitor and decode the sign and warn their pitchers by whistling, clapping, or banging the trashcan.
The banging system worked more efficiently than others, as it was easy to warn the pitchers. One or more bangs mean breaking ball, and no banging means fastball.
Aftermath Of The Scandal
After the report, the Houston Astros were fined 5 million Dollars, and Manager A.J Hinch and General Manager Jeff Luhnow were suspended for one year by the MLB. Later, the Astros club fired both Luhnow and Hinch for involvement in the scandal. But they both denied the accusations to some extent. Luhnow even stated that “he didn’t know anything about the sign stealing.”Later, Hich was hired as the manager of the Detroit tigers.
Players like Aron Judge of the New York Yankees were very upset by the news. He even stated that “I was mad, pretty upset to hear that player like me who worked hard for the game got cheated.” The judge even added that “I was sick to my stomach.” Cody Bellinger’s of the Los Angeles Dodgers, the team that lost to the Astros in the 2017 World Series, stated that “Everyone Knows they stole the ring from us.”
You Can Also Check: “17 Best Sites Where You Can Stream Soccer Legally”
