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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You would only be wrong if you weren’t playing the game. It is perfectly acceptable for a baserunner, usually a man on 2nd, to steal signs.
What is wrong is when someone not in the game does it. The reason is the home team has access to the stadium, so only they can put up cameras or spotters to catch and relay the signals, give them an advantage the visiting team does not have. It is really no different from putting a bug in the visitor’s bench area and listening in on the manager’s instructions to each batter.
The rules of a game do not need to have any underlying moral structure. Rules are what they are because that’s what makes the game a game.
There is no law against having 30 people in the outfield of a baseball game. There is a rule in baseball about the number of players that you can have on the field. But there’s no moral underpinning of that rule. The rule “just is”. It exists because without it the game element of a baseball game would be ruined by people cramming the outfield with players thereby almost ensuring that every hit is caught by someone.
The rules of baseball say that it’s no OK to take steps to figure out what the other teams signs are. It’s just not, there’s no moral underpinning why this is the case it’s just that’s the rule because without that rule part of the fun of a game of baseball would be lost.
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