Titles Tarnished by Cheating
Two World Series Champions caught stealing signs
On Jan. 13, 2020, Major League Baseball (MLB) found the Houston Astros guilty of using a centerfield camera in their home ballpark, Minute Maid Park, to steal opposing catchers’ pitch signals throughout the 2017 season.
Many remember the 2017 season as the year that turned the Houston Astros organization from a struggling professional baseball team into World Series Champions for the first time in their 57-year duration.
However, the sign stealing scandal that orchestrated the Astros run in the 2017 playoffs, becomes the biggest Major League Baseball scandal since dozens of top MLB players were caught using steroids in the early 2000’s.
The way that the Astros stole signs occurred through players and coaches using a camera in center field to watch the catchers’ signals to the pitcher.
These signals tell the pitcher the type of pitch to throw and the location. The Astros players and managers would then loudly hit a bucket or trash can either one or two times to tell the batter if the pitch was going to be a fastball or off-speed pitch.
Alex Wood, one of the star pitchers on the Los Angeles Dodgers team that lost to the Houston Astros in the 2017 World Series, commented about the incredible advantage sign-stealing can be for a batter.
“I would rather face a player that was taking steroids than face a player that knew every pitch that was coming,” said Wood.
In a classroom analogy, knowing the type of pitch being thrown can be compared to a student knowing the exam questions before taking a test.
In baseball, a statistic called on-base slugging percentage (OPS) is used as an accurate determinant of a hitters’ performance. An exceptional OPS for a hitter lands between .900 and 1.000, while a poor OPS falls under .600.
Houston Astros shortstop and six-time All Star, Jose Altuve, had an OPS of 1.541 during his home games in the 2017 playoffs, but a road game OPS of just 0.497. This monumental change in Altuve’s playoff hitting performance further confirms the incredible benefits of stealing catchers’ signs to the pitcher.
Pitchers across the league like Marcus Stroman, Trevor Bauer and Mike Clevinger have long been suspicious about the Astros stealing signs in the 2017 season. Stroman even commented how the Astros’ tactics have tarnished the game.
“I remember wondering how these guys were laying off some of my nasty pitches,” Stroman said. “Relaying all my signs in live speed to the batter. Ruining the integrity of the game.”
Because of this scandal, the Houston Astros fired their General Manager, Jeff Luhnow and their Manager, A.J. Hinch.
The firings come after MLB Commissioner, Robert Manfred, issued out year-long suspensions to Luhnow and Hinch. The Astros have also been fined 5 million dollars and will forfeit their first and second round draft picks in the 2020 MLB draft.
Additionally, former Astros outfielder, Carlos Beltran, was the only Astros player specifically mentioned in the scandal’s report and has stepped down as the New York Mets’ manager before coaching his first game.
Beltran became the second coach to be fired or step down as manager before beginning the upcoming season.The Boston Red Sox have also been tied to this sign stealing scandal and the one commonality between the Red Sox and the Astros is their manager, Alex Cora.
Cora was the manager on the 2017 Astros as well as the 2018 Red Sox World Series Champion—teams who both beat the Los Angeles Dodgers. Cora and the Red Sox have recently parted ways amidst the sign stealing scandal.
As many teams are cracking down on those involved in this situation, the Los Angeles Dodgers, runner-up in the 2017 and 2018 World Series, submitted a claim to the MLB asking the organization to strip the Astros and Red Sox of their championships and crown the Dodgers as Champions in 2017 and 2018.
The MLB season starts in a few months, and the best chance the Astros and Red Sox have to clear their name is by winning this year’s World Series in a scandal-proof manner. The implementation of technology all across the sports world is inevitable. While misusing technology seems to be at the heart of the issue, the ways to cheat have now become endless. Sports viewers have just come to realize that the Houston Astros and Boston Red Sox are most likely not the only teams using technology to cheat.
However, as the MLB season opens on Mar. 26, Major League Baseball officials will be watching with an extra close eye this year.
Contact Kieran Bradford at kbradford@scu.edu or call (408) 554-4852.