Astros Confiscate Signs From Spring Training Fans

Amazing, so instead of suspending players and stripping the title, they are now going to steal signs from the fans.  Total scumbags!  Baseball has a serious issue unless they do the right thing.  I think every ballpark should boycott the games when the Asteriks come to town.  

Hard to believe any commissioner can make Goodell look...reasonable...

@"JR44" said: Amazing, so instead of suspending players and stripping the title, they are now going to steal signs from the fans.  Total scumbags!  Baseball has a serious issue unless they do the right thing.  I think every ballpark should boycott the games when the Asteriks come to town.  

What I do not understand, is I read that the MLB warned the Astros to stop banging on the trash cans back in 2017 when it was happening, and the Astros kept doing it.
That is TERRIBLE. But... now in 2019 the Commissioner is saying that in order to get the full story from the players, he gave them all immunity.
That doesn't add up. Based on the prior warning, the MLB already had the full story, or at least enough of it to drop the hammer. So what is this new incredible information they gleaned from the players that was worth granting immunity to all of them for?
The whole thing stinks.
The Astros cheated up the wazoo and MLB is trying to downplay it to protect their $$$, rather than doing the right thing. Which in my opinion, would be stripping the WS title and suspending the actual offenders-- the players!-- for at least a half season but probably a full one.

@"pattersaur" said:

What I do not understand, is I read that the MLB warned the Astros to stop banging on the trash cans back in 2017 when it was happening, and the Astros kept doing it. That is TERRIBLE. But... now in 2019 the Commissioner is saying that in order to get the full story from the players, he gave them all immunity. That doesn't add up. Based on the prior warning, the MLB already had the full story, or at least enough of it to drop the hammer. So what is this new incredible information they gleaned from the players that was worth granting immunity to all of them for? The whole thing stinks. The Astros cheated up the wazoo and MLB is trying to downplay it to protect their $$$, rather than doing the right thing. Which in my opinion, would be stripping the WS title and suspending the actual offenders-- the players!-- for at least a half season but probably a full one.

Am I outraged with the latest sign stealing fiasco?  Nah…not really.  Apparently, it's part of the game.
The history of sign stealing through the ages with the MLB. 
1899-1900 Phillies
A backup catcher named Morgan Murphy watched games at Baker Bowl in an “observatory” beyond the centerfield wall, where he stole signs with binoculars. Murphy rigged an underground wire from his perch to the third-base coaching box, where Bull Childs kept his foot above a junction box that would signal the pitch by buzzing once or twice. The Reds discovered and uprooted the system after they noticed Childs was not moving his right foot—not even when that portion of the coaching box included a puddle from rain. The Phillies “explained” the wire as something left behind by a traveling circus that had played at the ballpark. The club was not disciplined.
https://www.si.com/mlb/2020/01/23/sign-stealing-history-astros-red-sox

I asked my buddy why baseball doesn't have radios and he looked at me like I was trying to sell him Windows 95.

Catchers giving pitchers signals under their junk in front of 20,000 people in a manner in which only the pitcher can see it is a stupid game of a system. The ease in which these signs can be relayed back to a batter should mandate a change away from visual cues. 

What's really crazy to wonder is how prevalent this type of cheating could potentially be; the Astros got caught. Baseball history is littered with squads that went down in sign stealing infamy - how many players and/or squads have never been caught? How preventable is it, or how much would things change, if a catcher had another way to relay the pitch to the pitcher? 

If they had stopped when caught the 1st time it would have been more...well you snuck one by us there. 
To do it again after caught and told directly along with everyone else.
DON'T do it again...then ya did it again. That's when it became what it is now. 
Enjoy your infamy Houston Asterisks.

@"suncoastvike" said: If they had stopped when caught the 1st time it would have been more...well you snuck one by us there.  To do it again after caught and told directly along with everyone else. DON'T do it again...then ya did it again. That's when it became what it is now.  Enjoy your infamy Houston Asterisks.

Exactly this. One could say at first, maybe they were just bending the rules.
Then they got caught. They got told to stop. They kept doing it.
At that point you aren't bending the rules, you're enthusiastically breaking them.

@"Canthony" said:

@"pattersaur" said:

What I do not understand, is I read that the MLB warned the Astros to stop banging on the trash cans back in 2017 when it was happening, and the Astros kept doing it. That is TERRIBLE. But... now in 2019 the Commissioner is saying that in order to get the full story from the players, he gave them all immunity. That doesn't add up. Based on the prior warning, the MLB already had the full story, or at least enough of it to drop the hammer. So what is this new incredible information they gleaned from the players that was worth granting immunity to all of them for? The whole thing stinks. The Astros cheated up the wazoo and MLB is trying to downplay it to protect their $$$, rather than doing the right thing. Which in my opinion, would be stripping the WS title and suspending the actual offenders-- the players!-- for at least a half season but probably a full one.

How many players were actually involved though? I am not saying they should get away with it, I am saying it would be hard to suspend 90% of the Astros bats and expect to put a product on the field that will generate revenue. I would guess this is what the commissioner is thinking about. Money. It is always about money as you stated in your post. 

@"Akvike" said:

@"Canthony" said:

@"pattersaur" said:

What I do not understand, is I read that the MLB warned the Astros to stop banging on the trash cans back in 2017 when it was happening, and the Astros kept doing it. That is TERRIBLE. But... now in 2019 the Commissioner is saying that in order to get the full story from the players, he gave them all immunity. That doesn't add up. Based on the prior warning, the MLB already had the full story, or at least enough of it to drop the hammer. So what is this new incredible information they gleaned from the players that was worth granting immunity to all of them for? The whole thing stinks. The Astros cheated up the wazoo and MLB is trying to downplay it to protect their $$$, rather than doing the right thing. Which in my opinion, would be stripping the WS title and suspending the actual offenders-- the players!-- for at least a half season but probably a full one.

How many players were actually involved though? I am not saying they should get away with it, I am saying it would be hard to suspend 90% of the Astros bats and expect to put a product on the field that will generate revenue. I would guess this is what the commissioner is thinking about. Money. It is always about money as you stated in your post. 

so who gives am eff if they can field a competitive team or even a scab sore flunk fest---they got busted for ignoring a warning and instead got rewarded for it