MACK #63: The Houston Astros Sign Stealing Scandal

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AKA The shit that ruined baseball, again.

[make sure you head to middleagedcoolkids.com for the embedded photos and links in this post!]

Hiyooo good people! I hope this recent upload finds you well.

This week’s episode is all about The Houston Astros Sign Stealing Scandal Extravaganza. Well, maybe not all about it. Dave, as usual, has a bit of an issue staying on topic. But that’s always fun so who cares.

Just a quick background of the episode in case you haven’t been following this story:

In November an article in The Athletic entitled “The Astros stole signs electronically in 2017 — part of a much broader issue for Major League Baseball” written by Ken Rosenthal and Evan Drellich was posted to TheAthletic.com — Here’s an excerpt:

Four people who were with the Astros in 2017, including pitcher Mike Fiers, said that during that season, the Astros stole signs during home games in real time with the aid of a camera positioned in the outfield.

<snip>

Early in the 2017 season, at least two uniformed Astros got together to start the process. One was a hitter who was struggling at the plate and had benefited from sign stealing with a previous team, according to club sources; another was a coach who wanted to help. They were said to strongly believe that some opposing teams were already up to no good.

In the article Rosenthal and Drellich go into detail about the particulars of this sign stealing scheme.

Here’s where Jimmy O’Brien (@Jomboy_ on twitter) comes in. He did some youtube detective work and found some evidence of the garbage can banging.

Astros using cameras to steal signs, a breakdown pic.twitter.com/rncm6qzXxw

— Jomboy (@Jomboy_) November 12, 2019

He posted a few more of these clips and then appealed to other people to jump onto youtube and dig up more evidence of the Astros cheating. And they did! It seemed that sometimes, instead of whacking the garbage can, the team used a series of whistles to tip off the batter.

One youtuber speculates that during Away games he thinks that the hitters were looking to someone in the bull pen who may have been changing their location or signaling in some other way so the man at bat could anticipate the next pitch.

 

Another twitter account @YankeeReport_ posted this photo which is actually a screenshot from the Astros World Championship Season DVD.

Just absurd pic.twitter.com/ZnU8iXjaQc

— The Yankee Report (@YankeeReport_) November 17, 2019

In it you can witness the scene of the crime. IN PLAIN SIGHT. On the damn DVD. My Lord.

Also, of course there’s the DON’T RIP OFF MY SHIRT incident with Altuve that also bears some closer scrutiny.

This is video after Altuve hit the walkoff HR against Chapman in Game 6 of the ALCS. He approaches home plate adamantly telling his teammates not to rip off his jersey and he ran straight to the tunnel instead of celebrating. He was hiding a buzzer

H/T theinsidedrop on IG pic.twitter.com/5551gBT0Fa

— Jonathon Shipman (@Shippyfunsports) January 16, 2020

Anywhoooooo, we talk about all of this and more PLUS Dave goes off on some tangents that may or may not exasperate me. I’m sure you all will find them delightful.

I hope you enjoy being infuriated with us about this!

Thanks for listening!

XOXO

Shecky