The latest electronic sign-stealing allegations lead directly to complicity on the parts of Houston Astros GM Jeff Luhnow and manager A.J. Hinch.
Sign stealing by use of mechanical/electronic methods is the baseball world’s oldest profession. The practice of which the Houston Astros stand accused can be traced back to the 19th Century, with at least sporadic forays into it at various points since then.
While sign stealing itself is viewed as a legitimate art, employing artificial means is a violation of rules for the same reason that corking a bat or applying a foreign substance to a pitch is illegal: it seeks to win by means other than pure human skill or talent.
Probably the most serious aspect of the allegations against the Astros is the practice of using a real-time dugout camera to aid in decoding signs. That means the illegal activity was team-wide and sanctioned by management. That’s also why, if an MLB allegation establishes the legitimacy of the allegations, a lot of Astros personnel are in real trouble.
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Begin with manager A.J. Hinch. It’s his bench. If it is established that a camera had been installed in center field, that it was used to monitor the opposing catcher’s real-time delivery of signs to the pitcher, and that the Houston Astros made use of a dugout monitor to decode the signs, MLB likely will have no choice but to ban Hinch from working as a manager.
It would, under those circumstances, be impossible for Hinch to credibly contend that he had no knowledge of the system. And if somehow, he tried to, he would only be complicating obvious duplicity with the intimation that he lacked basic awareness of events in his own dugout.
Houston Astros GM Jeff Luhnow may be in the same jeopardy. It’s his ballpark. Installation of such a center field camera, particularly one that is hidden from general view, along with the accompanying electronics needed to make the system function, could hardly be done outside the purview of the general manager.
And if by some stretch of the imagination, Luhnow were to attempt to argue that he was unaware of such changes, he would also be indicting himself for lack of control.
Again, assuming the allegations are proved true, MLB would either have to order Luhnow’s removal or at minimum levy some sort of hefty fine accompanied by some other suitable punishment.
The argument can be made that MLB has not tended to punish those employing electronic means to steal signs. That’s generally true…but rarely is the evidence of electronic/mechanical espionage uncovered during the functioning careers of the suspects or traced back to the highest team levels.
Around the turn of the Century, a belief circulated that the Philadelphia Phillies had placed a man with binoculars inside the clubhouse in center field at Baker Bowl. Over time players came to notice that Phillies third base coach Pearce Chiles developed a curious nervous leg twitch at odd moments.
A suspicious opposing coach, putting two and two together, rooted around in that coaches box and found a wire inside a buried box. It was subsequently traced back to the scoreboard. The spotter had been communicating with Chiles by means of a slight electronic vibration along the wire, enabling Chiles to verbally relay information to the batter.
There were frequent allegations surrounding John McGraw’s New York Giants, most of them also involving a mysterious figure with a telescope or binoculars in the center-field clubhouse. In the last decade of the 19th Century, the Murphy Brothers, legendary groundskeepers at Baltimore’s Union Grounds, were suspected of employing numerous methods to help the Orioles gain a mechanical or electronic advantage, although mechanical sign-stealing was not generally one of them.
Since it happened, evidence has accumulated that the 1951 New York Giants were using mechanical means to steal the signs of the Brooklyn Dodgers during the 1951 National League Playoff made famous by Bobby Thomson’s clinching home run – and that thanks to those methods Thomson knew ahead of time what pitch Ralph Branca was throwing.
In September of 2017, the New York Yankees accused the Boston Red Sox of using mechanical methods to steal their signs. The Red Sox eventually admitted the allegation and were fined an undisclosed amount.
The fact that the Red Sox escaped their 2017 conviction with a monetary fine is the best argument that the Astros’ punishment should not be more extensive. At the same time, these new allegations surface amid an atmosphere where there is virtually an assumption that the problem is not isolated to one or two teams; in fact, that it may be widespread.
If that’s found to be true, then MLB may have no choice but to both widen its probe and levy harsher penalties. The other problem facing the Houston Astros is that the use of the technology that facilitated the cheating is an obvious organization-wide indictment since it would have been impossible to install and use the technology without administrative awareness.
In the Red Sox-Yankee violation of 2017, Commissioner Rob Manfred’s investigation specifically cleared Red Sox management of awareness of the illegal activity, levying his fine merely for lack of institutional control.
If the allegations are proven, the fact that Hinch and Luhnow were necessarily involved is likely to force MLB’s disciplinary hand. There is precedent. In that same 2017 season, MLB forced the resignation of Atlanta Braves’ general manager John Coppolella when it became known that he had violated MLB rules regarding the signing of international and domestic amateurs.