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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What you’re describing isn’t necessarily cheating – if I’m on second base and I see the catcher’s hand, I see a fastball get thrown, and I communicate that to my team, we’re welcome to use it. That’s part of the reason that teams also vary signs pretty frequently.
What the Astros did was kick that up a notch: they had outfield cameras positioned to watch the signs, they had team employees off of the field reviewing that footage, and they had people do things like bang loudly on trash cans to update the hitters on what pitch was coming. So they had a much more concerted effort around the sign stealing – rather than just the players and coaches, which would have been perfectly legal.
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