I keep hearing about the Astros and how they were cheating by stealing the signs/hand gestures from other teams. What I don’t get is how it’s cheating. If the catcher throws down a 1 and I know that means fastball, how would I be in the wrong if I rely that info to the batter?
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Sign stealing is totally OK. However, like everything in Baseball, there are Rules. If your runner on second base sees a sign and flashes a hand signal to the batter – that’s totally OK. If your use home park infrastructure to signal some ballpark employee to communicate with the batter, that’s illegal. Just like having the pitcher wear an earpiece and sending them pitches via radio – when the Rules say you can’t do it and you do it anyway – that’s cheating.
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