The Houston Astros not only loss the 2019 World Series in seven games, but now they are being accused of stealing signs electronically in 2017, the year they won the World Series.
Former Astros pitcher Mike Fiers, who led the team in innings pitched in 2017, stated the Astros stole signs during home games that season with the help of a camera positioned in the outfield and players or staff would bang on trash cans to signal when an off-speed pitch was coming.
As luck would have it, the episode of “Jeopardy!” that aired on Tuesday night featured a clue about sign stealing in baseball.
The odds of that happening are just crazy as episodes for the popular show are typically filmed about three months before they air.
The Astros released the following statement: “Regarding the story posted by The Athletic earlier today, the Houston Astros organization has begun an investigation in cooperation with Major League Baseball. It would not be appropriate to comment further on this matter at this time.”
“I’m hopeful that we’ll find out exactly what happened and we’ll address if there’s something to be addressed and we can move on,” said Astros GM Jeff Luhnow. “The reason we won the World Series in 2017 is Jose Altuve and Alex Bregman, Justin Verlander, and a lot of great players and they do things the right way and we as an organization, that’s what we aspire to do as well.”
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“Teams are competing with one another and everybody is trying to find an edge,” said Luhnow. “But we all have to follow the rules and the rules are set by Major League Baseball. We all follow them, we agree to follow them and if you don’t there’s ramifications to that. We want to follow the rules and we want to compete and win and that’s what every other club does as well.”
MLB issued the following statement to The Athletic:
“Beginning in the 2017 season, numerous Clubs expressed general concerns that other Clubs were stealing their signs. As a result of those concerns, and after receiving extensive input from the General Managers, we issued a revised policy on sign stealing prior to the 2019 season. We also put in place detailed protocols and procedures to provide comfort to Clubs that other Clubs were not using video during the game to decode and steal signs. After we review this new information, we will determine any necessary next steps.”
