The recent allegations relating to the Houston Astros’ elaborate sign-stealing system came as a surprise to much of baseball world. While the Astros had been suspected of stealing signs by teams, the use of technology was crossing a line from gamesmanship into cheating.
But it turns out that MLB wasn’t all too shocked about the Astros’ sign-stealing tactics. In fact, the league took measures in the 2019 season to prevent the Astros from relaying signals for off-speed pitches to the batter. The league just reportedly did so while letting the Astros’ apparent 2017 and 2018 cheating go unpunished until former Astros pitcher Mike Fiers blew the whistle on the operation.
According to a report from The Houston Chronicle, the league instructed video monitors at Minute Maid Park to listen for that same banging noise for off-speed pitches that Fiers described to The Athletic.
Via The Chronicle:
Part of that revised policy included a group of video monitors at each ballpark responsible for ensuring clubs adhered to the new regulations. Each game last regular season had at least one person around both the home and visiting dugouts monitoring the replay room, clubhouse, tunnel and any other area.
“What they told us was we were essentially looking for people who were using technology to steal signs,” said one video monitor.
The report continued:
One person familiar with the Astros’ video monitoring said those who worked at Minute Maid Park were instructed “early on” to “make sure there was no one in the dugout banging.”
Last week, MLB acknowledged that teams expressed concerns about sign stealing. The league said that it put protocols in place to prevent technology being used to steal signs.
But a specific directive relating to the Astros’ banging noise would imply that MLB at least had some prior knowledge of tactics that have since been exposed in various Twitter videos and possibly the Astros’ own World Series documentary.
