After Reports of Astros’ Cheating, M.L.B. Is Left to Restore Trust

Think of George Steinbrenner calling the Yankees’ dugout in 1987, demanding that Manager Lou Piniella ask the umpires to check the Angels’ Don Sutton, whom he suspected of doctoring the ball. Piniella refused, because he did not want the umpires checking his own pitcher, Tommy John. That logic is why pitchers can still find forbidden ways to get at least a tackier grip on the ball; as long as it is done discreetly, the practice is so widespread that teams have tacitly condoned it.

That is also a reason steroid use went unchecked for as long as it did: Nobody wanted to call out a rival and risk that a teammate could be busted. Until Ken Caminiti’s admission in Sports Illustrated in 2002 (after he had retired) baseball could easily deny the scope of the problem. But once Caminiti said he had been juicing when he won a Most Valuable Player Award, a testing plan was finally phased in for the next year.

To its credit, baseball is already trying to police electronic chicanery. After the issue flared in the 2018 postseason — when the Astros directed a team employee to use a cellphone camera to survey the home dugouts in Cleveland and Boston — the league banned non-broadcast cameras between the foul poles and put all television monitors on an eight-second delay — except those used by the team replay assistants, who are monitored by a security official.

“If you can do it using your eye balls it’s ok,” Nationals reliever Sean Doolittle wrote on Twitter on Thursday. “If you’re using technology it’s cheating.”

Even so, teams take no chances. Before the World Series games in Houston last month, the Washington Nationals gave each of their pitchers a card with five sets of signs they could switch to at any time. They also consulted with Tony Sipp, a reliever they released in August who had played with the Astros the last few years.

The Nationals won all four games in Houston to clinch their first championship. In the 2017 World Series, however, the Dodgers lost two of their three games in Houston.

Source: The New York Times

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Houston Astros • Major League Baseball • Left fielder • George Steinbrenner • New York Yankees • Dugout (baseball) • Manager (baseball) • Lou Piniella • Umpire (baseball) • Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim • Don Sutton • Umpire (baseball) • Pitcher • Tommy John • Steroid • Ken Caminiti • Sports Illustrated • Baseball • Steroid • Baseball • Houston Astros • Dugout (baseball) • Cleveland • Boston • Instant replay • Relief pitcher • Sean Doolittle • Twitter • World Series • Washington Nationals • Pitcher • Tony Sipp • Relief pitcher • Houston Astros • Washington Nationals • Houston • 2017 Major League Baseball season • Los Angeles Dodgers • Games played • Houston •