When the Houston Astros spent most of the 2020 regular season underperforming, it was tempting to see their struggles as proof that their sign-stealing system fueled the franchise’s recent rise. The official investigation into the scheme — which involved using video to decode opponents’ signs in real time, then transmitting the signs to batters via […]
There are scandals with legs, and then there’s the Houston Astros sign-stealing affair, which first broke in November and shows no trace of letting up, even as — or perhaps especially as — MLB players report to spring training this month. (You can tell the scandal is particularly bad, by the way, because we haven’t […]
Stealing signs has been part of baseball since signs existed. The spycraft is generally accepted so long as the efforts are not aided electronically. Yet as early as 1900, there were technology-aided attempts to steal signs. The 1951 New York Giants used a telescope and an electrical buzzer to relay opposing catchers’ pitch calls in […]