Sign Stealing... Don't Get It...

[Greatscott]

Admittedly, I am not a baseball fan, just too boring to watch on TV. However, for watching a game in person, I would rather go to a baseball game than a football game.

Anyhoo…

A lot of people have their knickers in a twist over this sign stealing controversy, they say it is cheating and all of the players involved should be banned for life. I just don't get that.... Baseball pitching signs are out in the open, if you are behind the pitcher, you can see them. Seems like a team got a little over-innovative with their approach to exploit this, but they are out there to be seen. If baseball doesn't want the signs to be "stolen", baseball needs to come up with a better method of communication.

The whole mess is like playing poker, and having the value of the cards printed on both sides, and telling your opponents not to look.

Baseball fans, is this sign stealing a terrible thing? Or, do you think baseball needs to evolve a little bit?

[svt923]

Originally Posted by Greatscott

The whole mess is like playing poker, and having the value of the cards printed on both sides, and telling your opponents not to look.

Normally baseball is like if you are playing poker and, on the way to the bathroom, your buddy walks 100 feet behind the guy you are playing against. Maybe he can signal you that he thinks what the cards are but he is far away and the cards are kinda hard to see.

The Astros implemented systematic cheating which was more akin to the building you are playing poker in having cameras pointed at the cards of your opponent and there is a dedicated employee calling them in to you secretly during the game.

The act of sign stealing is part of the gamesmanship of baseball that is limited to the situation where a rather intelligent player is on 2nd base, any other time and there is no member of the batting team that can see the signs. When most of the organization conspires to secretly use video monitoring and banned communication to the dugout (after MLB had already warned teams to not use such communication), it has definitely reached beyond the normal attempts at gaining an edge during a game.

[Topher Builds]

I’m on the fence about this one for two reasons that pull me either way.

Tech: it’d be easy to avoid this by putting ear pieces in the pitchers and catchers ears to communicate pitch commands from the dugout, pitcher can still shake them off and the catcher will see and hear what’s going on.

But, it’s baseball: baseball, out of all sports, seems to be one where the expectation of sportsmanship is higher than perhaps other sports. Maybe not hockey though. But to make it in baseball it’s a grind, there’s millions of people who’ve had a career playing ball and never made it to the bigs. Because of that grind, “the show” is sacred and professionals should act accordingly. That’s why you don’t see many celebrations for a baseball player who’s just doing their job, even a bat flip after a home run could get a 95 mph giant golf ball flying behind your head.

That’s why I personally enjoy seeing teams going after the Astros. One of the biggest shames of 2020 is that the live MLB audiences across the nation didn’t get a chance to rain boos and profanities on the Cheatstros all year long. That’s one of the reasons Joe Kelly is my hero this year.

Regardless of that expectation though cheating has been a part of baseball for almost its entire history. Steroids. Sign stealing. Heck even back in the babe Ruth days guys were doing amphetamines (while drinking and smoking before/during games). So at the end of the day, if I was managing a competitive ball club I’d be looking into alternatives for pitching signs. I also have a hard time not wanting an electronic strike zone, for consistency. Think about the strike zones guys like Greg Maddox used to get back in the day. Umpires are better now and get feedback/graded on it but balls and strikes should be 100% accurate if it’s possible without slowing down the game.

[Topher Builds]

Originally Posted by svt923

The act of sign stealing is part of the gamesmanship of baseball that is limited to the situation where a rather intelligent player is on 2nd base, any other time and there is no member of the batting team that can see the signs. When most of the organization conspires to secretly use video monitoring and banned communication to the dugout (after MLB had already warned teams to not use such communication), it has definitely reached beyond the normal attempts at gaining an edge during a game.

Big like

[mikemcE]

It’s the technology that was the issue..... And others have been implicated........


Hang up and Drive

[Postclanker]

I played ball...
If you could figure out their signs....that was part of the game. It wasn’t a crime!

They (baseball) needs to play the game....get over it....the other team didn’t do so well

[mikemcE]

Originally Posted by Postclanker

I played ball...
If you could figure out their signs....that was part of the game. It wasn’t a crime!

They (baseball) needs to play the game....get over it....the other team didn’t do so well

This was a full time staff solely for stealing. Totally different..... Yep if they are that obvious on the field, no problem, Massive lenses and a sophisticated comm setup, no that’s a crime. Sorta the old NASCAR policy, and it didn’t work. Now when they regularly get caught, they pay fairly, loss of crew chief on down.

The rich teams will cheat to win....
Hmmmmmm sorta like the Cheatreots.......


Hang up and Drive