Tag: Apple Watch

Are the Astros Stealing the Red Sox Signs? Probably. Do I Care? Not Really.

By on • ( 1 Comment )

Yahoo – The Boston Red Sox were warned that a man credentialed by the Houston Astros might try to steal signs or information from their dugout after the Cleveland Indians caught him taking pictures of their dugout with a cellphone camera during Game 3 of the American League Division Series, sources with knowledge of the situation told Yahoo Sports.

A photograph obtained by Yahoo Sports showed a man named Kyle McLaughlin aiming a cell phone into Cleveland’s dugout during the Indians’ 11-3 loss that ended their season. McLaughlin was the same man caught taking pictures near the Red Sox’s dugout during Game 1 of the AL Championship Series, which was first reported by the Metro Times. McLaughlin was removed by security in Cleveland and Boston, sources said.

It would be the height of hypocrisy for a guy from Boston to fire up the outrage machine over alleged sign stealing from an opponent. It would go against the line I’ve *always* preached that it’s really not that big of a deal. I’m not going to go as far as the old trope that “if you ain’t cheating, you ain’t trying to win,” but particularly in baseball it is a part of the culture. If a guy on second base relays a stolen signal to his teammate at the plate then it’s generally accepted, if not applauded.

I suppose the influx of technology makes people more uncomfortable as it becomes a bit more sophisticated.

“Teams around the league are perhaps more wary of the Astros than any team, fearful that their employment of cameras – they use high-speed models made by Edgertronic to help evaluate players, according to sources – allows them to steal signs. MLB has not punished the Astros for any illegal behavior, sources told Yahoo Sports.”

If you happen to notice a catchers sign and relay that to a teammate you’re just competing, but if you have a whole system of deceit people regard it as more seedy.

I don’t really care and that may be because I am just entirely jaded by overblown cheating accusations (and stories about Apple Watches). If the Astros are indeed cheating then punish them, but I’m not going to sit here and tell you we need to take draft picks, and suspend players, and resurrect the ghost of Senator Arlen Specter to investigate the whole thing.

With that being said, at least PRETEND to be stealthy about it my dude.

But all this really does is raise the question I’ve always had as to why some of these stories blow up and others don’t? I mean anything the Patriots and Bill Belichick are accused of will always take on a life of its own because Bill is a glorious dickhead and people will take any chance they can get to try and bury the guy.

I guess the ‘Stros don’t play grabass with the media like some of the players/teams who have had similar stories swept under the rug.

Remember when Peyton Manning was (allegedly) taking PEDs? That shit was like a midnight news scroll on ESPN and was really never mentioned again. Ohhhh it was his wife taking the HGH guys, not Peyton the 40-year-old QB with a surgically fused spine, it was his wife!

Remember when the St. Louis Cardinals were caught hacking into the Astros entire scouting database? This got absolutely ZERO burn by the national media and this may have been the most outlandish scheme I’ve ever heard. The fall guy did end up going to prison and the team did get docked a couple of draft picks, but hey the Cardinals are the classiest team with the best fans in the world.

Red Sox Admit to Stealing Signs Against the Yankees Using an Apple Watch

By on • ( 2 Comments )

NY Times – For decades, spying on another team has been as much a part of the gamesmanship of baseball as brushback pitches and hard slides. The Red Sox have apparently added a modern — and illicit — twist: They used an Apple Watch to gain an advantage against the Yankees and other teams..The commissioner’s office then confronted the Red Sox, who admitted that their trainers had received signals from video replay personnel and then relayed that information to some players — an operation that had been in place for at least several weeks.

Oh for christ’s sake. Steve Jobs would be rolling over in his goddamn grave. Now for the record I do not think stealing signs in baseball is a big deal, I believe every team is doing it in some form or another. But leave it to the Red Sox to get caught up in another big embarrassing storyline to make the whole organization look bad.

As retarded as this whole scenario is, I do respect the Red Sox for just getting petty with it.

“The Red Sox responded in kind on Tuesday, filing a complaint against the Yankees, claiming that the team uses a camera from its television network, YES, exclusively to steal signs during games.”

Basically responding to the allegations by saying “well, yea..but fuck you” and filing a complaint of their own.

Also, I want to call bullshit on John Farrell not being aware of this whole thing, but the guy is a goddamn space case so I actually don’t doubt it. Not exactly a players manager either so I doubt Pedroia, the guy who threw his whole team under the bus with the Manny Machado incident, is casually chatting with Manager John over stuff like this.

I did hear Curt Schilling on WEEI this morning though and when asked about the situation he said you’re a moron if you think this isn’t going on everywhere. Basically said it happened in every game of his career, on both sides, all the way from A-ball to the major leagues.

“I never looked at it as cheating. I looked at it as I throw harder than you and if I catch you I’ll hurt you way worse than you can hurt me.”

According to Schilling the Yankees are far from innocent of doing this shit too.

“Alex [Rodriguez] used to do it in New York at second base. And he wasn’t good at it.”

Fucking A-Rod man. Guy can’t even steal signs without getting made fun of by his peers. In full transparency though, Schilling said his teams did the same thing.

“Game 6 of the 2001 World Series (Yankees lost 16-2) we knew every single pitch Andy Pettitte threw.”

It’s just part of the game. But, this is just what we need in Boston, another cheating scandal. Sure, every rational person will say eh its just stealing signs, legitimately every other team does it in some form or another. But fans aren’t rational. Most fans, especially dickhead New Yorkers, will tie it all neatly together with Spygate and just make me want to put a bullet in my brain as I’ll now have to debate this incident for the rest of my life too.

This team is fucked anyways, steal as many signs as you want. Won’t help Rick Porcello not serve up batting practice to last place teams.