Hello Baseball Fans,
Here’s a HOT item to kick off the new year, decade, and ensuing season! Have you ever seen the great film biopic about Johnny Cash called “Walk The Line”? If not, you should check it out. But whether you have or haven’t, a perceived lesson early in Cash’s career can be applied to baseball’s current (and old) news regarding competitive advantage. We’re specifically talking about illegal advantages, via the stealing of the other team’s pitching signs (or batting signs from 3rd base coach).
Sign stealing. Baseball sign stealing has been going since the inception of signs themselves. I tried it as early as eighth grade when guys could throw a fastball and curve ball so giving the pitcher a sign was necessary as well as when there were defensive ‘situations’. I would frequently want to look (to study patterns) out from behind the dish at the other team’s 3rd base coach for tells of a steal, bunt, or hit-and-run for example. SIDEBAR: Many 3rd base coaches don’t give ‘dummy’ signs frequently enough so you may not have to pick up the indicator. The indicator is the information to tell a batter and/or runner that the next motion is the sign (assignment) itself. By giving out few dummy signs, any activity by the base coach tips me, the catcher, off that they are up to something. Then, I can call a specific pitch or location, call for the pitcher to throw to first, or move an infielder’s positioning, etc.). You can’t see a lot of this stuff on t.v. and many casual fans aren’t aware of it anyway. That’s sad since there is more going on than meets the eye, but that’s for another day.
First, what is legal and illegal? The game of baseball, unlike just about any other entity in the world, says it’s OK to steal pitch selection signs or batting signs. However, there are rules of engagement:
The theft must only be via live in-person observation akin to sitting at a poker table to pick up on another player’s antics, or tells, as to when they are bluffing or when they actually have that third ace. In 2000, MLB told teams not to use any electronics or cameras for purposes of sign stealing. Then, fast forward thru the 00s, and many technology advancements later, to a few complaints by teams in 2017 when Commissioner Rob Manfred warned all teams about electronic sign stealing. The warnings were specifically to the upper-level executives that it was ON THEM to prevent it and that baseball would NOT tolerate the usage of outfield cameras in conjunction with the state-of-the-art video rooms that are just steps away from the home team dugouts. The warning emphasized HEAVY punishments to the executives, although they were not specific.
Now, back to the Johnny Cash movie where a young Johnny is just setting out on the road to play shows across the south in the ‘Bible Belt’ with his band and new friends. The Jerry Lee Lewis character is worried that they are ‘all going to hell’, which he implied was from fear that rock ‘n’ roll was somehow truly evil in and of itself. With a biblical reference to the forbidden fruit, Lewis says, “He said, ‘don’t touch it’. He didn’t say ‘touch it once in a while or when your’re hungry’…..He said ‘don’t touch it.” Johnny and the others laugh it off. And perhaps laugh it off is just what some members of the Houston Astros and Boston Red Sox did following Manfred’s warning that punishments would be severe for interfering with the stealing and decoding of signs via cameras in real-time.
Well, as the ‘Stros and Sox and we have found out, Manfred was dead serious. General Manager Jeff Luhnow, suspended for a year. Manager A.J. Hinch suspended for a year. Unprecedented at these levels. Good. That needed to happen. Astros owner Jim Crane took it to a higher level and fired them. Kudos to him, but NOT a standing ovation of congratulations. In reality, he also had little choice. Was he really going to bring in someone in those positions for one year? I don’t think so. That’s difficult at best and disruptive times two. And this team is still a high level talent. They need to move on quickly.
As for BoSox manager Alex Cora, who was on the ’17 Astros as bench coach in addition to leading Boston the last two seasons, he is out of a job as well. The Sox brass was ahead of MLB in its decision to start fresh so it remains to be seen how long his suspension will be. Should he get a lifetime ban is the big question. I believe his actions in Houston with the sign stealing going on in a crude and frequent way of bashing a garbage can during any at-bat AND then the adjusted (watered down) version in Boston by only doing it via relaying information to a base-runner who then forwarded it to the batter following the warnings of ’17 would certainly justify a lifetime ban.
That is some real and specific ‘criminal’ activity there, in sporting terms. The adjustment is also an admission of wrong doing or an evasion to getting caught. Take your pick. However, the lack of specifics in regard to punishment following the warnings have us here at VFTD believing that the lifetime ban will NOT happen. Pete Rose, the all-time hit king, was banned for life because baseball DID have the precedent that gambling or coercing with gamblers would garner such a punishment.
The prediction: to Jerry Lee Lewis’ analogy about rock ‘n’ roll, Alex Cora touched the ‘forbidden fruit’ (cameras) twice, once in Houston and once in Boston. He didn’t listen to his boss. Therefore, he gets to lead the league in an unprecedented and likely MLB career-ending two year suspension since Manfred said, “Don’t touch it.”
Later Baseball Fans.