MLB's 2017 Investigation Into Yankees' Claim Of Sign-Stealing By Red Sox Found Yankees Had Cheated In Exactly The Same Way In 2015-16 (But Manfred Kept That Info A Secret)

In August 2017, the Yankees asked the Commissioner's Office to investigate "the illegal use of electronic equipment" by the Red Sox in order to steal signs and relay the information to batters. After that investigation, Rob Manfred sent the letter quoted below to Yankees GM Brian Cashman on September 14, 2017.

The Yankees fought for years against the public release of this letter. Now we can see why. Evan Drellich (The Athletic) notes that Manfred's letter reveals the stark difference between the way the Yankees' behavior was described publicly and privately.

In his 2017 statement, Manfred ruled the Red Sox had violated the rule against using electronic equipment "for the purpose of stealing signs or conveying information". He added that during the course of MLB's investigation, it was found the Yankees "had violated a rule governing the use of the dugout phone" during the 2015 and 2016 seasons, but Manfred explained that "the substance of the communications" on that phone "was not a violation of any Rule or Regulation in and of itself".

Manfred was, at the very least, telling a lie of omission. After the Yankees filed their complaint, the Red Sox filed a complaint in response, claiming the Yankees were stealing signs in 2017. Manfred stated that the evidence he saw was insufficient. However, as he noted in the final paragraph of his letter to Cashman, the Yankees were stealing signs in 2015 and 2016 (and Manfred fined the club $100,000). In fact, the Yankees were guilty of the exact same thing they later complained about with respect to the Red Sox. (emphasis added below)

September 14, 2017

Dear Brian:

On August 23, 2017, the New York Yankees filed a formal complaint and requested that the Office of the Commissioner "conduct a full and complete investigation concerning the illegal use off electronic equipment, in game, by the Boston Red Sox in order to steal signs and gain an illegal advantage in the game." As a result of the Yankees' complaint, I directed the Department of Investigations to interview a number of employees of the Red Sox and the Yankees in connection to this matter. Based on the information we received, I have concluded that the Red Sox violated On-Field Regulation 1-2.A by using electronic equipment "for the purpose of stealing signs or conveying information designed to give a Club an advantage." I will address this violation of the On-Field Regulations directly with the Red Sox.

During our investigation into the Red Sox's misconduct, [redacted] informed the Department of Investigations that the Yankees used a similar scheme to that of the Red Sox to decode opposing Clubs' signs and relay them to the batter when the runner was on second base. [Redacted] — who initially noticed that the Red Sox were using a smartwatch to pass information to their players — admitted to the Department of Investigations that during the 2015 season and the first half of the 2016 season, [redacted] provided information about opposing Club's signs to players and members of the coaching staff in the replay room in Yankee Stadium, who then physically relayed the information to the Yankees' dugout. [Redacted] also admitted that during that same time period, in certain stadiums on the road where the video room was not proximate to the dugout [redacted] used the phone line in the replay room to orally provide real-time information about opposing Club's signs to Yankee coaches on the bench.

Section VI(C)(2)(c) of the Replay Review Regulations (2-14) provides as follows:

The dugout phone will be connected to the video review location. If the dugout phone does not work at any point during the game, upon notifying the home plate Umpire, the Manager shall be permitted to communicate with his Club's video review location via walkie-talkie. On-field personnel in the dugout may not discuss any issue with individuals in their video review room using the dugout phone other than whether to challenge a play subject to video Replay Review.

The Yankees' use of the dugout phone to relay information about an opposing Club's signs during the 2015 season, and part of the 2016 season, constitutes a material violation of the Replay Review Regulations. By using the phone in the video review room to instantaneously transmit the information regarding signs to the dugout in violation of the Regulations, the Yankees were able to provide real-time information to their players regarding opposing Club's sign sequence — the same objective of the Red Sox's scheme that was the subject of the Yankees' complaint (1).

Based on the foregoing, the Yankees are hereby fined $100,000. Please send a check in that amount, made payable to Major League Baseball Charities, to my attention. The money will be used for Hurricane Irma relief.

I expect your strict adherence to the On-Field Regulations going forward. Any similar violations will result in more significant discipline, including but not limited to the denial or transfer of player selection rights provided by Major League Rules 4 and 5.

Sincerely,

Robert D. Manfred, Jr.

____

(1) As you know, on September 5, 2017, the Red Sox submitted a separate formal complaint and request that my office investigate the Yankees, alleging that the Yankees have employed "techniques of sign stealing and relaying, as well as other questionable methods of gathering information on opposing teams' strategies," which have included "using YES Network cameras pointed at [the Red Sox's] coaching staff and players giving signs in the dugout, in order to gain an illegal advantage in the game." My office has thoroughly investigated the Red Sox's claims in this regard and has concluded they are without merit. The Red Sox also submitted a video clip from a YES Network broadcast of a June 13, 2017 game between the Yankees and the Angels in Anaheim that appears to show a Yankees bullpen coach watching the Angels' network broadcast of the game on an unauthorized iPad in the Yankees' bullpen. The broadcast is on a one-pitch delay, and there is no evidence the Yankees were using the iPad as a part of a sign-stealing scheme. Regardless, use of this iPad violated On-Field Regulation 1-2.A.

Electronic Sign Stealing (September 1900)

1st electronic sign stealing dates back to 9/17/1900...@Reds Captain Tom Corcoran found a metal box buried below the 3rd base coaching box with a "ticker" inside it. The @Phillies were sending "taps" from their clubhouse window to 3d base coach below#BaseballandtheLaw 247-48 pic.twitter.com/SzMgzW152h

— #BaseballandtheLaw 🏛 ⚾️ (@baseballandthe2) September 17, 2020

"1st electronic sign stealing dates back to 9/17/1900. ... Reds Captain Tom Corcoran found a metal box buried below the 3rd base coaching box with a "ticker" inside it. The Phillies were sending "taps" from their clubhouse window to 3d base coach below."

Judge Rules MLB Letter To Yankees Re Sign-Stealing Investigation Must Be Released

Yankees up in arms over release of letter allegedly showing 'serious' sign-stealing https://t.co/wsfU5u9CwG pic.twitter.com/DzSS8Cm2Tb

— New York Post (@nypost) June 13, 2020

MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred's letter to the New York Yankees regarding the findings of a 2017 investigation into sign-stealing by the Yankees must be released, according to a New York judge.

The ruling states that a minimally-redacted version of the letter ("to protect the identity of the individuals mentioned") must be released by noon ET on Monday, June 15.

The Yankees argue the letter would cause "significant reputational injury", if released, but also claim: "We're not doing this to cover up some smoking gun."

The ruling comes as part of a lawsuit brought against MLB by daily fantasy sports contestants in the wake of other sign-stealing scandals. The letter concerns activities by the Yankees in 2015 and 2016.

Judge Jed Rakoff ruled:

Plaintiffs alleged that the 2017 Press Release falsely suggested that the investigation found that the Yankees had only engaged in a minor technical infraction, whereas, according to plaintiffs, the investigation had in fact found that the Yankees engaged in a more serious, sign-stealing scheme. ... [Plaintiffs argue the letter] proved Manfred's duplicity. ...

MLB primarily argues that it will be injured by the disclosure of the Yankees Letter because such disclosure will undermine its ability to conduct internal investigations in the future by undermining teams' faith in their confidentiality. The Yankees argue that they have a strong privacy interest because public disclosure of the Yankees Letter would cause the Yankees significant reputational injury. While this may be the case, the gravity of this concern is again lessened by the fact that the contents of the Yankees Letter have already been discussed in some form by the 2017 Press Release.

Evan Drellich, The Athletic:

[T]he league's 2017 press release about the Yankees' conduct lacked specificity.

The league determined in 2017 that the Red Sox had illegally transmitted signs via a wearable device, in what became known as the Apple Watch scandal. But in the press release announcing the findings of the investigation into both the Red Sox and Yankees, Manfred did not detail exactly what the Yankees did, noting only that it included the use of the dugout phone. ...

The Athletic has previously reported that in 2017 MLB determined that the Yankees had engaged in conduct related to sign stealing similar to the Red Sox'.

In his ruling, Rakoff called the privacy interests of both the Yankees and MLB "modest at best, and not nearly strong enough to overcome the robust presumption of access that attaches to the Yankees Letter".

Rosenthal Portrays Players Union As Bearing Co-Responsibility For Sign-Stealing Scandal; Manfred, Immediately After Saying He Learned Of Scandal In 2017, Claims His Reaction Was "Slow [Only] By A Few Months", Which Is "Pretty Damn Quick".

MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred, speaking on Sunday, February 16, 2020, about the sign-stealing scandal:

I think we were slow to appreciate the risk on this topic.

Ya think? Who says Manfred is completely out of touch?

Actually, Manfred and MLB may have appreciated this topic quite a while ago. It has been reported (and not denied by anyone) that the commissioner had numerous complaints about the Astros gathering dust on his desk for years. The real issue is MLB's steadfast refusal to conduct an investigation into any of those complaints.

Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic has some additional comments from Commissioner Rob Manfred. A persistent theme in Rosenthal's most-recent article is that the MLB Players Union bears something close to equal responsibility for the scandal. Rosenthal appears to be letting MLB off the hook somewhat for its inaction and softening Manfred's pathetic reaction to this scandal.

Hindsight is 20-20. Unintended consequences, almost by definition, are difficult to forecast. ...

In fairness, Manfred was not alone in failing to see the future clearly. ... The union ... did not directly focus on the threat to the game's integrity.

Looking back, it's easy to say, "baseball should have seen this coming." ...

In baseball, though, things are rarely simple, and conflicting agendas sometimes distract from the most urgent matters. Thus, ... the MLBPA ... did not fully grasp the breadth of the problem. ...

Union chief Tony Clark has sounded occasional public warnings ... But not until [November 2019] ... did anyone on the players' side publicly suggest that illegal sign stealing was creating an uneven playing field.

One pitcher ... said he and other pitchers raised such fears at union meetings after the '16 season. When the same broad rules remained in effect for '17, the pitcher said the lack of action by MLB and the MLBPA was, "frankly astonishing to me."

So, why didn't MLB jump sooner? Why didn't the MLBPA? ...

Maybe it should have happened sooner. But baseball is moving toward a better place.

So: Manfred cannot be blamed for failing to predict the future; players need to speak publicly for their concern to be properly registered with the commissioner's office; and the union can go over the commissioner's head and unilaterally enact sweeping changes to the game. ... Interesting.

Manfred is desperately trying to rewrite his place in baseball history:

If you think about it when we really became aware that something was going on, it was in 2017. By 2018, we were on the corrective action. When I say we were slow, we were slow by a few months. Look, I don't think that that's the worst reaction time of all time. Do I wish we would have got there a little sooner? Yeah, I do. ...

Look, it's like looking backwards on the steroid thing. You've heard me say this before. The problem with chasing — when somebody else is doing something wrong, at the beginning you're going to be a step behind. That's the way of the world. There's no avoiding that. Do I wish we would have thought through, "Gee, yeah, something bad could happen here?" Of course I do. I hate where we are right now. I think that when we had a reasonable basis to come to the realization we had a problem, I think we were pretty damn quick to get on it.

Manfred claims his reaction to this scandal was only "slow by a few months" and when there was "a reasonable basis" to realize a problem existed, he was "pretty damn quick" to act. Yet Manfred also says (pretty much in the same breath) that he "really became aware of something" way back in 2017. Even if that knowledge came after the 2017 World Series, that's still two years before Mike Fiers's comments became public. And, of course, Manfred was spurred to act only because the scandal had become public and he could no longer ignore it.

Manfred hates where "where we are right now" − in a situation where MLB's chronic inaction and (after being forced to act) its weak response has resulted in an unprecedented number of players ripping both the Astros and Manfred in public, fans disgusted by the entire spectacle, including Manfred covering up aspects of the scandal that reflected badly on the owner of the Astros and claiming that only in "a perfect world" could he punish the cheating players.

Cardinals reliever Andrew Miller says it's "naive" to think, "Oh, we missed this huge, gaping thing."

Except we now know Manfred had complaints about the Astros from 10-12 teams on his desk, some of which were years old − and he didn't lift a finger. It's impossible to credibly claim that MLB missed this huge issue. #FireManfred.

Rob Manfred Holds A Press Conference And Bombs In Every Possible Way, Giving Illogical Answers And Insulting Reporters. (Later, Mike Trout (!) Rips Him.)

MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred held a press conference last Friday in North Port, Florida.

How did it go? Well, here are a few headlines:

Rob Manfred Offers Little Insight, Shows Contempt For Reporters In Press Conference (NBC Sports)

Manfred Says Astros' Shame Is Penalty Enough. Opponents Might Disagree. (New York Times)

Rob Manfred Defends Astros' Punishment, Says He Would've Penalized Players In 'Perfect World' (CBS Sports)

Astros Cheating: MLB Network Airs Bull Durham Over Rob Manfred Press Conference (Sports Illustrated)

Manfred said that public shame was a serious enough punishment for the Astros players:

I think if you look at the faces of the Houston players ... they have been hurt by this. ... They will live with questions about what went on in 2017 and 2018 for the rest of their lives. ... [T]hey have payed a price. ... [T]hey're [not] skipping down the road into spring training happy.

Manfred referred to the World Series trophy as "a piece of metal". (The trophy is officially known as the "Commissioner's Trophy".)

Manfred was asked whether the Astros wore buzzers under their uniforms in 2019. He said the players told him they did not, and he took their word for it.

Manfred admitted that if former Houston pitcher Mike Fiers had not spoken to The Athletic about the Astros' cheating in 2017,

we would not have been able to conduct the effective investigation that we did. We would not have been able to impose the disciplines that were imposed. We would not have been able to probably take the prophylactic measures that we're gonna take with respect to 2020, and it's important — painful, but important — that we clean all that up.

Meaning that Commissioner Rob Manfred, even with a reported 10-12 separate complaints about cheating by the Astros piled up on his desk and the fact that Houston's cheating was apparently an "open secret" throughout all levels of the baseball industry, would not have begun any investigations into what those complaints about the Astros were all about.

And Manfred praised his own office's "intestinal fortitude" in sharing the "not very pretty" results of the Astros investigation.

Justin Turner of the Dodgers had a few things to say on Monday:

I don't know if the commissioner has ever won anything in his life. Maybe he hasn't. But the reason every guy's in this room, the reason every guy is working out all offseason, and showing up to camp early and putting in all the time and effort is specifically for that trophy, which, by the way, is called the commissioner's trophy. So for him to devalue it the way he did yesterday just tells me how out of touch he is with the players in this game. At this point the only thing devaluing that trophy is that it says "commissioner" on it. ...

Now anyone who goes forward and cheats to win a World Series, they can live with themselves knowing that, "Oh, it's OK. … We'll cheat in the World Series and bring the title back to L.A. Screw Dave Roberts and screw Andrew [Friedman]. It's just those guys losing their jobs. I still get to be called a champion the rest of my life." So the precedent was set by him yesterday in this case.

And then ... Manfred was ripped by friggin' Mike Trout!

Marc Carig, The Athletic, February 17, 2020:

Mike Trout, fairly or not, has been made into the poster boy for baseball's personality problem. Rob Manfred had something to do with it. A few years back, the commissioner criticized the Angels' star for not doing enough to promote the game. It was a reference to Trout's perceived public blandness. Indeed, Trout's allergy to saying anything remotely controversial has been well documented.

But on Monday morning, Trout seized the megaphone that comes with being the best player in baseball, then delivered a pointed message. He declared his belief that the Astros are cheaters, that Manfred should have punished the players responsible for one of the biggest scandals in the history of the sport, and that he looks upon the 2017 World Series championship with suspicion.

"You don't know what helped them or what not,” Trout said. "But if you know what's coming, it's going to definitely help you. It's tough. Taking a trophy away, taking the rings away, I think they should definitely do something. I don't know what. But to cheat like that and not get anything, it's sad to see."

Trout lobbing a grenade at fellow players and the chief executive of the league just might be the wildest development of the fallout. It remains rare in baseball for players to criticize other players. That tendency toward silence is embedded deep into the culture of the game. ...

To be clear, his comments won't be mistaken for some of the sharper barbs that have come from clubhouses all over the league. ... But in relative terms, this was Trout at perhaps his angriest. He was unflinching. He was even funny.

For Trout, lowering his guard is talking about the weather. But even he managed to take a sleepy Monday morning in spring training and turn it into a late-show monologue. For a few minutes, the timing of his laugh lines rivaled his timing at the plate.

Had he noticed the banging? "I didn't notice the banging. I noticed the banging off the bat, in center field." ...

Is knowing the signs an advantage? "Me going up to the plate knowing what's coming, it would be fun up there."

Indeed, it would be fun to watch. But it would never happen, Trout said, because stealing signs with technology is cheating.

"It's sad for baseball," Trout said. "Tough. They cheated. I don't agree with the punishments, with the players not getting anything when it's a player-driven thing. … Guys' careers have been affected. A lot of people lost jobs." ...

Trout conceded that he "lost respect for some of the guys." Most notably, Trout did not hesitate to share his dismay with Manfred, particularly when it came to meting out punishments to the players. ...

"Obviously, they had something to know that they were cheating," he said. "So, I don't know. It's a tough subject to talk about. Like I said, they cheated the game, cheated players. It's just tough to see."

The howls of protest coming directly from opposing players have been unprecedented. At no point during the Steroid Era was there such a unified chorus. ...

[W]ith Manfred scheduled to meet with media in Arizona on Tuesday, the vitriol about the Astros has shown no signs of slowing down. To Trout, there is an obvious reason.

"Because a lot of teams were affected," he said. "You look at the Dodgers, you look at the Yankees, we weren't in the playoffs but they were in the playoffs. You come to spring training because you want to win a ring. If you see someone cheated to do it, it's a tough thing to swallow. I'm sure a lot of people are mad. I'm sure a lot of people are going to hold back and not say much."

Bill Baer, NBC Sports, February 16, 2020:

Commissioner Rob Manfred spoke at a press conference, addressing the Astros cheating scandal and other topics on Sunday evening. It did not go well.

To start, the press conference was not broadcast officially on MLB's own TV channel (it aired the 1988 movie Bull Durham instead), nor could any mention to it or link to the live stream be found anywhere on MLB.com. When the actual questions began, Manfred's answers were circuitous or simply illogical given other comments he has made in the past. On more than one occasion, he showed contempt for reporters for doing their jobs — and, some might argue, doing his job — holding players and front office personnel accountable.

Last month, Jared Diamond of the Wall Street Journal broke a story about the Astros' "dark arts" and "Codebreaker" operation, based on a letter Manfred sent to then-GM Jeff Luhnow. Diamond was among the reporters present for Manfred's press conference on Sunday. Per The Athletic's Lindsey Adler, Manfred addressed Diamond, saying, "You know, congratulations. You got a private letter that, you know, I sent to a club official. Nice reporting on your part." MLB's response to the depth of the Astros' cheating ways was lacking and, without Diamond's reporting, we would have known how deeply lacking that response was. It is understandable that Manfred would be salty about it, since it exposed him as doing his job poorly, but it was an immature, unrestrained response from someone in charge of the entire league.

Onto the actual topic at hand, Manfred said he felt like the punishment doled out to the Astros was enough. Per Chris Cotillo, Manfred said Astros players "have been hurt by this" and will forever be questioned about their achievements in 2017 and '18. Some players disagree. Former pitcher Phil Hughes even suggested the players have a work stoppage over this issue.

Manfred defended his decision not to vacate the Astros' championship, saying, "The idea of an asterisk or asking for a piece of metal back seems like a futile act." The commissioner devaluing the meaning of a championship seems… not great? Counterintuitive, even? The "piece of metal" is literally called the Commissioner's Trophy. Manfred went on to brag about the league having "the intestinal fortitude to share the results of that investigation, even when those results were not very pretty." Be careful, don't hurt yourself patting yourself on the back for doing the bare minimum. ...

Because the players involved in the Astros' cheating scheme weren't punished, some — like Larry Bowa — have suggested intentionally throwing baseballs at Astros players to exact justice. Manfred [said] ... retaliatory beanballs "will not be tolerated." ... Manfred has done nothing about beanball wars in the past, but it will now give the Astros somewhat of an advantage since pitchers will now be judged closely on any pitch that runs too far inside on Astro hitters. ...

All in all, this press conference could not have gone worse for Manfred. The press found it condescending and the comments he made rang hollow to the players. Manfred seemed on edge and unprepared addressing arguably the biggest controversy baseball has faced since the steroid era. This is a dark time for the sport.

Brendan Gawlowski, FanGraphs, February 17, 2020:

The [press] conference was not broadcast on MLB Network — Bull Durham aired instead — nor did it stream on MLB.com. Whether this reflects a continuation of the league's misguided damage control policy or a misunderstanding of the scandal's resonance to fans, it was a strange way to downplay the commissioner's remarks on such a topical issue. ...

Listening to his remarks, one gets the impression that the league will remain in reactive mode perpetually as new details emerge, and that Manfred himself wants nothing more than to reach the other side of this. At one point he clumsily exclaimed "we'll have baseball in 2020!" We're all excited too, Rob. ...

At this point, the league's response to the scandal has become a part of the story. Public reporting has driven MLB's investigations and actions at every step ...

The majority of questions were, understandably, about the Astros. By the midway point of the press conference, Manfred seemed like he'd rather have been talking about anything else, saying that "[t]his has been really fun but I'd like to move on to other topics at some point." Naturally, the following question was about the Astros.

Most dissonantly of all though, in his (otherwise reasonable) explanation for why he didn't vacate Houston's 2017 title, he said "the idea of… asking for a piece of metal back seems like a futile idea."

"A piece of metal." It was just one flippant line in a half-hour conference, but it was nonetheless shocking to hear the commissioner of baseball refer to the game's ultimate prize in that manner. ...

He also dismissed the idea that the players are getting off easy, noting that their accomplishments will be forever tainted ...

One intriguing moment was Manfred's claim that, without Mike Fiers talking to The Athletic, the league probably would have never launched an extensive investigation. "Without the reporting… and the availability of Fiers, we probably wouldn't have gotten where we got to."

That's a strange message in the broader context of the scandal. Players and executives from around the league have talked about how Houston's cheating was an open secret. Danny Farquhar, at the very least, caught on to the banging scheme in real time. It strains credulity to think that the league couldn't have investigated this properly without help from the press, and Manfred's comment only reinforces the impression that damage control has been the league's unwavering priority in this matter. ...

Boston sign stealing: Somewhat lost in all the Astros news lately is that the league has still not administered discipline to Alex Cora (or anyone else) involved in Boston's sign-stealing scandal. Expect that to change in the next fortnight: "We always want the investigation to go as quickly as possible," Manfred said. "Never, however, at the expense of making sure that we have pursued every possible lead and done everything we can do to get the facts right. I think by the end of next week we should be done and have a decision out." Whether anyone will be happy about that or not, we'll see.

Craig Calcaterra, NBC Sports, February 17, 2020:

A lot of people have become armchair public relations experts as it relates to the Astros, but my personal view is that the Astros' public statements are not lacking because they're tone deaf or because they have bad P.R. It's simply because they're not sorry. ...

Athletes are lauded and mythologized for being willing to do anything to win. A century and a half of pro sports has shown us, time and again, that that anything often includes cheating. And that with few exceptions, the reward is worth the risk. It's also worth the fallout in the instances in which they are caught. The Astros won a title. They got glory and fame and in some cases money ... There is really nothing that can be done. And, on some level, the Astros know this. To the extent they feel bad it's because they got caught and because they are being scrutinized now. ...

This is one of those basic things that anyone who is into high level sports just has to make peace with somehow. Or, even, if they can't, it's something they need to stop assuming is a stain on some pure thing. Baseball is not pure, nor are the men who play it. ...

[On social media, Astros fans are] vacillating between "see, they apologized!" and "they have no reason to apologize because everyone else was cheating and no one else is talking about that, are they?!"

This last bit is what's most fascinating to me, because it involves two levels of cognitive dissonance on the part of those who hold the opinion.

First off, I'm struck by the notion that for seven years the Astros and their fans have insisted that the Astros do everything better, earlier, faster, and more efficiently than the rest of the league. Then, the moment they get busted for something that their better and faster front office innovated "Codebreaker" they insist that they were merely doing what everyone else was doing across the league. I guess the Astros are only at the cutting edge of exploiting competitive inefficiencies in non-rule-breaking ways. Pretty convenient! ...

Finally, even if the Astros are being singled out, it does not absolve them. I would hope that's not a difficult concept to grok – "I may have been copying Billy's test but Billy was copying from Suzy" hasn't washed as an excuse, basically ever – but you'd be amazed at how many Astros fans I've encountered who are arguing, basically that. Down with whataboutism, folks. It's simply crap logic. ...

[T]he most telling part [of Manfred's press conference] is when he made a snide and dismissive remark about Wall Street Journal reporter Jared Diamond's story which revealed (a) how much more sophisticated and front office-led the sign-stealing was; and (b) how Manfred apparently buried all of that in his January report on the matter. Manfred:

"You know, congratulations. You got a private letter that, you know, I sent to a club official. Nice reporting on your part."

How immature. How peevish. In this Manfred comes off like a whining child. Like someone so out of his depth in the job of commissioner that the echo sounder can't gauge it. ...

[T]here are very, very few reporters who are super critical of the league or Manfred from an editorial perspective. The reason for this is simple: a substantial part of the baseball press corps is employed by MLB itself or work for MLB rights holders like ESPN, RSNs or radio outlets which broadcast games. That Manfred can't handle even the very small amount of heat he gets from the press – that a simple factual support inspires an ad hominem attack on the reporter who, via basic reporting, revealed Manfred's own incompetence – is simply sad.

Anyway, it's a whole new week now. Maybe now people will begin to accept that not all apologies are required to be accepted. Maybe they'll begin to accept that not all bad behavior has a defense. Maybe they'll begin to accept that Major League Baseball cares far less about getting to the bottom of issues that reflect poorly on the league than it does about burying said issues in the bottom of a quarry someplace. Maybe they'll move on to baseball. To the parts about it that aren't ridiculous and pathetic.

Tyler Kepner, New York Times, February 16, 2020:

Players across the majors have reported to spring training this year with gloves, bats and barbs. When they are not lashing out at the Astros, they are lampooning them. The Astros' sign-stealing scheme was egregious enough to break established norms in professional baseball, where players rarely gang up on fellow members of the brotherhood.

But now there seem to be 29 teams of saints and one dirty band of sinners from Houston, absolved by a benevolent commissioner who granted immunity in exchange for confessions. That decision now undermines Manfred with fans and players, and he knows it. Before he even took a question on Sunday, he asserted that shame was punishment enough for the Astros.

"I think if you look at the faces of the Houston players, as they've been out there publicly addressing this issue, they have been hurt by this," Manfred said. "They will live with questions about what went on in 2017 and 2018 for the rest of their lives."

Sad faces? Constant questions? Apparently it is up to the news media to do what Manfred could not: impose some kind of lasting toll on the Astros. ... None of the active players who benefited from the scheme — stealing catchers' signals electronically and relaying them in real time by banging on a trash can near the home dugout at Minute Maid Park — have been penalized.

Had Manfred suspended the players, he would have surely faced pushback from their union. His report in January blistered the Astros' leadership but curiously spared the team's owner, Jim Crane ...

Manfred said Sunday that, in a perfect world, he would have punished the players, but he needed their cooperation to confirm what really happened. ... "If I was in a world where I could have found all the facts without granting immunity, I would have done that." ...

Who will be the first pitcher to inflict punishment at 95 miles an hour? At Red Sox camp on Sunday, reporters asked Chris Sale — who was thrashed by the Astros in the 2017 division series opener in Houston — about that. ...

"I think the game polices itself sometimes," he said. "It will be interesting to see how this plays out. I think you're going to see some stuff happen this year. I don't know if it's right, wrong or indifferent. Guys are certainly welcome to handle things however they want."

Manfred felt that public humiliation was enough of a punishment for the players, but not for the manager or the general manager.

Why not? That makes no sense.

Why not have A.J. Hinch live with questions about what went on for the rest of his life? Why not have him never skip down the road into spring training happy?

We'll take a quick break to point out that Manfred also gave a head-scratching answer to a question about the Tomahawk Chop, acting like the numerous complaints over this racist practice were a new thing that he has not had time to investigate.

Christopher Buchanan, 11 Alive, February 17, 2020:

The leader of Major League Baseball seemed hesitant to delve into the Braves' "Tomahawk Chop" controversy as he fielded dozens of questions about the Astros cheating scandal on Sunday. ...

To begin with, Commissioner Rob Manfred suggested that the Chop controversy hadn't been on his mind recently.

"You know, um, I'm sorry to admit this, but with the - all that's going on ... it's just simply too much going on and I haven't even gotten around to it. ... I just can't do better than that for you, right now."

Atlanta's baseball fans have been doing the Chop since 1991. The protests against it have also been going on for 20 years.

Manfred has been working with MLB in some capacity since 1987. During the 1994–95 strike, he served as outside counsel for the owners. He joined MLB as the Executive Vice President of Economics and League Affairs in 1998 and represented MLB in negotiations with the Players Association for new collective bargaining agreements in 2002, 2006, and 2011. Manfred was promoted to Chief Operating Officer at the end of the 2013 season and elected as Commissioner in August 2014.

All of that is to say that Manfred has been well aware of the controversy over the Chop since it began. He cannot suddenly use the excuse of the recent sign-stealing scandal to mask his years of inaction.

And in California, the Long Beach Little League and East Fullerton Little League won't have any teams named after the Astros. "Parents are disgusted," Long Beach Little League president Steve Klaus told the Orange County Register. "They are disgusted with the Astros and their lack of ownership and accountability. We know there's more to this scandal. What's coming tomorrow? With the Astros, you've got premeditated cheating."

Mike Axisa, CBS Sports, February 17, 2020:

On Sunday, it was MLB commissioner Rob Manfred's turn to face the public regarding the Houston Astros sign-stealing scandal that has dominated baseball the last four months. ...

"When we began the investigation after we became aware of the Houston situation, we started with an important and fundamental goal," Manfred said at a Sunday press conference. "That was goal was to make sure that we found the facts, completed the investigation, found out what was going on, and put ourselves in position to be as transparent with our fans and other clubs. People had a right to know what happened and we achieved that goal."

Earlier [in the day], Manfred conducted an interview with ESPN's Karl Ravech in which he said Houston's apology earlier in the week was "not successful." ...

[Manfred told ESPN:] "I think if you watch the players, watch their faces when they have to deal with this issue publicly, they have payed a price. To think that they're skipping down the road into spring training happy, that's just a mischaracterization of where we are."

Here are six important things to know about Manfred's press conference Sunday afternoon.

1. Manfred would've liked to punish players ... "If I was in a world where I could've found all the facts without granting immunity, I would've done that."

Because MLB granted the players immunity in exchange for information, Manfred said they are being punished through public shame, essentially. Answering questions about the sign-stealing scandal and having others (fans, opposing players, etc.) consider their accomplishments illegitimate is punishment enough. ...

2. Manfred is not certain there were no buzzers ... Manfred said his investigation found no evidence of buzzers. He stopped short of saying the Astros did not use buzzers, however.

"You're never 100 percent sure in any of these things, but these were my best judgments," he said.

Manfred said MLB was aware of the buzzer allegations ... before the garbage can investigation. According to Manfred, Astros players ... [were] consistent in their denials about the use of buzzers in 2019. He's taking their word for it. ...

Manfred said the [Red Sox] investigation is ongoing, but he expects a resolution by the end of next week. ...

Jimmy Traina, Sports Illustrated, February 17, 2020:

Commissioner Rob Manfred held his first press conference regarding Houston's sign-stealing chicanery Sunday afternoon, just a few days after the Astros held a disastrous press conference in which they shrugged off the entire affair.

However, MLB Network passed on airing Manfred's meeting with the media and stuck to its original programming at the time: Bull Durham.

Yes, baseball's own network decided not to air an important and newsworthy press conference held by its own commissioner so instead they could air a movie that has been shown on its network a million times.

MLB Network aired the Astros' controversial press conference on Thursday featuring Crane, Jose Altuve and Bregman, so it's hard to understand why it would ignore Manfred's presser on Sunday. ...

SI reached out to MLB Network about the decision ... So the presser was covered, but not covered live, which is a mind-boggling decision. There was absolutely no excuse for not showing Manfred live on Sunday.

Houston Astros' projected lineup: pic.twitter.com/UZ62v4lmFn

— New York Mammoths (@NYMammoths) February 14, 2020

Cody Bellinger Blasts "Weak" Statements From "Ring-Stealing" Astros; Carlos Correa Says Astros Won 2017 Title Fair And Square, But Also Feel Bad About Cheating

Cody Bellinger, Dodgers outfielder and 2019 National League MVP, spoke to reporters on Friday about the Astros' sign-stealing scandal and the team's public apologies.

I thought the apologies were whatever. I thought Jim Crane's was weak. I thought Manfred's punishment was weak, giving them immunity. Those guys were cheating for three years. I think what people don't realize is Altuve stole an MVP from Judge in '17. Everyone knows they stole the ring from us. ... I know personally I lost respect for those guys. I think I would say everyone in the show, in the big leagues, lost respect for those guys.

The Dodgers lost the 2017 World Series to the Astros in seven games. MLB's report stated that Houston's sign-stealing operation ended some time in 2018, but Bellinger believes the Astros were cheating in 2019:

A hundred percent. I don't know why they would stop.

He questioned Jose Altuve's actions after hitting his pennant-winning home run in the 2019 ALCS.

I don't know what human hits a walk-off home run against Aroldis Chapman to send your team to the World Series and has the thought to say, "Don't rip my jersey off", but to go in the tunnel, change your shirt, and then come out and do your interview — that makes no sense to me. Makes zero sense to me. Because I know me. Gary Sanchez said it yesterday. You can rip ... my pants off. I send my team to the World Series ... in the ninth inning, at home. I'm going crazy.

Other Dodgers spoke out, as well. Dodgers pitcher Ross Stripling:

They went beyond the line. And I think it's up to us ... to keep reiterating that and saying that it did cross the line. ... I think one of the worst things that could happen would be we get through spring and it's just forgotten about ... Or they get pegged for the first two games and then it's forgotten about. It needs to be reiterated and that might be from our side saying, "Dude, this was not the norm back then." I keep seeing that on Twitter and other places. "That was just the norm. That's the way baseball was and the Astros got caught." That's not true.

Last week, when Stripling heard rumours he might be traded to the Angels, he wondered whether he would intentionally throw at any Astros. (The Angels open the 2020 season in Houston.) "I would lean towards yes. In the right time and the right place."

Fellow pitcher Alex Wood noted that if that happened, Stripling would likely be suspended for throwing at players cheated for years but escaped punishment.

Clayton Kershaw:

Some of those guys seemed remorseful, some of those guys said the right things, gave a good apology. And that's great. I'll move on with that. And then you get the owner up there saying some dumb stuff and it's like, "What's going on? How can you be that ignorant to the situation?" I don't really know what to make of it all anymore.

Third baseman Justin Turner:

It's hard to feel like they earned it and they earned the right to be called champions.

Astros shortstop Carlos Correa did not appreciate Bellinger's comments.

I don't have problems when people talk about 2017 and about what happened that year because, honestly, we were wrong. Everything that happened that year was absolutely wrong, and we obviously show remorse for that because we really feel bad about everything that happened in 2017.

The problem I have is when players ... don't know the facts, they're not informed about the situation and they just go out there and go on camera and just talk. ... [W]hen [Bellinger] talks about that we cheated for three years, he either doesn't know how to read, is really bad at reading comprehension or is just not informed at all. The commissioner's report clearly says that all those activities were conducted in 2017. 2018, nothing happened. 2019, nothing happened.

Ken Rosenthal, who conducted the interview for The Athletic, reminded Correa that MLB's report did state the Astros cheated

at least for part of the 2018 season". "[T]he Astros' replay review room continued ... to decode signs using the live center-field camera feed, and to transmit the signs to the dugout through in-person communication.

The Astros stopped this cheating only because they doubted the system's effectiveness. So who has reading comprehension problems, Carlos?

[H]e says, "José Altuve cheated Judge out of the MVP." Cody, you don't know the facts. Nobody wants to talk about this, but I'm going to talk about this. José Altuve was the one guy that didn't use the trash can. The few times that the trash can was banged was without his consent, and he would go inside the clubhouse and inside the dugout to whoever was banging the trash can and he would get pissed. He would get mad. He would say, "I don't want this. I can't hit like this. Don't you do that to me." ... The bangs that are on Twitter or whatever, that shows it. Altuve played clean the whole year. [Tony Adams, an Astros fan who created signstealingscandal.com, documented only 24 bangs for Altuve. The top six Astros, including Correa, all topped 95.] ...

I want to address [the buzzer allegation] as well. 2019, nobody wore buzzers. That's a lie. The reason José Altuve didn't want to get his shirt ripped off, I'm going to tell you. Earlier in the year, he hit a walk-off at Minute Maid Park; I ripped off his shirt with Tony Kemp. There are pictures of that. There are videos of that. You can go look at it. I ripped off his shirt, and his wife told my wife, "Why is Carlos ripping Altuve's shirt? I don't like that." So when he's running from third base to home plate, I'm the guy up front. The first one waiting for him. He's like, "Don't take my shirt off." The second reason — he doesn't want me to talk about this, but I'm going to say it, is because he's got an unfinished tattoo on his collarbone that honestly looked terrible. It was a bad tattoo, and he didn't want nobody to see it. He didn't want to show it at all. So, one, he didn't want to take his shirt off because his wife had told my wife earlier in the year for me to not do that. So he was telling me not to do it. And, number two, he had an unfinished tattoo that looked kinda bad that he didn't want people to see and people to talk about. That was the reason. But Altuve has never cheated. … He was not wearing buzzers. That's a story that a fake account on Twitter broke, and then people just got on that wagon and started talking about the buzzers. Like, no. Nobody thought about buzzers. Nobody was using buzzers.

So (1) Altuve's wife didn't like her husband's jersey getting ripped and (2) Altuve had an unsightly unfinished tattoo that he didn't want people to talk about. ... Nope, sorry. Those are both ridiculous. Try again. ... It would have been a vibrator, anyway, not a buzzer, because the opposing catcher or umpire might hear a buzzer.

When Correa is asked whether the Astros earned the 2017 World Series title, he goes through the games, noting that the Astros won two games in LA and both teams used intricate signs.

World Series games are too important to use easy signs. There are Morse codes out there. There are signs that nobody can get. There are so many variations you can use, and nobody can get that. ... When I analyze all the games, we earned that championship. We didn't steal it. Instead of talking about it, he should have done something about it. ... [T]hey left so many guys on base in Game 7, throughout the whole World Series. Cody didn't have a good World Series. [Bellinger went 4-for-28, with 17 strikeouts (no player on either team had more than nine).] ...

Don't think that we feel great because we cheated that year and we got away with it and all that. No. We've got to go to bed every single night thinking about what we did and how wrong it was. We've got to live with that. [Bellinger] said that they all lost respect for us. But that's not how life works. We all make mistakes. ... It's how you confront those mistakes that you make. You've got to admit to those mistakes. You've got to accept those mistakes. ... Cody Bellinger's job is to ... be informed before you talk about other players. If you don't know the facts, then you've got to shut the fuck up.

This is the story Correa is trying to sell us:

The Astros felt horrible about getting away with cheating and winning the World Series in 2017. It was truly a burden on their souls. And every single night, they would go to bed and be alone in the dark with their thoughts, tossing and turning as their memories resurfaced and nagged at them, forcing them to relive the mistakes they had made, the wrong they had done. But they survived. They managed to get themselves out of bed, face a new day, and dream up new ways to cheat in 2018. Again, they did this because they felt so bad about cheating in 2017.

The Astros made mistakes. But "it's how you confront" those mistakes, how you accept them, that's important. (However, these cheating schemes cannot really be described as "mistakes"; they were months-long operations that they indulged in every day, week after week, month after month. "Mistake" implies a one-time error.) In any event, I would argue that Astros have not really confronted the fact that they cheated for years.

Is it remotely possibly to dump the "we-feel-so-bad-about-the-wrong-things-we-did" shtick? Everyone knows you didn't feel bad! The cheating went on for years. You were completely fine with it. Stop insulting our intelligence.

Astros Press Conference Was "Contrition Performance Art", "PR-Coached Statements Disguised As Apologies"

Crane: Our opinion is this didn't impact the game. We had a good team. We won the World Series. And we'll leave it at that. ...

[Fewer than 60 seconds later]

Q: Did you say you feel like this didn't impact the game? And what do you mean by that?

Crane: I didn't say it didn't impact the game. Basically, you know, as the Commissioner said in his report, he's not going to go backwards. It's hard to determine how it impacted the game, if it impacted the game and that's where we're going to leave it.

"Our opinion is that this didn't impact the game." - Jim Crane

"I didn't say it didn't impact the game." - Jim Crane 55 seconds later pic.twitter.com/MnpPeeTUPL

— CBS Sports (@CBSSports) February 13, 2020

It wouldn't seem possible to make it worse. But the Astros have made it worse.

— Pete Abraham (@PeteAbe) February 13, 2020

It's shocking to hear Jim Crane say he didn't think the sign stealing impacting games. Of course, it did. Why else would the Astros have had such an elaborate system to cheat?

— Jack Curry (@JackCurryYES) February 13, 2020

Right...they did it because trash can acoustics are good for the soul.

Yes, they had a good team. But of course it impacted the game. If it didn’t impact the game, why continue it? Don’t play the public for fools. Just apologize, be accountable, and move forward. https://t.co/Hf7iFL7FRz

— Michael Young (@MikeyY626) February 13, 2020

The Astros are doing apologies like the Iowans do caucuses.

— Marc Carig (@MarcCarig) February 13, 2020

This right here. This is comedy. #astroscheat pic.twitter.com/xfsCiDDVxo

— Jared Scott || Filmmaker 🎥 (@JaredScottFilms) February 14, 2020

If you believe that about McCann, I have some ocean front property to sell you in Arizona!

— Jeff Nelson (@NYnellie43) February 11, 2020

Astros Justin Verlander has been extremely clear in the past about players who cheat in baseball.

It turns out he was specifically referring to players who cheat against his team.

Justin Verlander in 2016

“If there is proven intent to cheat: you test positive or it’s found that you were taking an illegal substance, PEDs, and trying to cheat the system, trying to go around it, I think it should be a ban from baseball”

— G (@godisgreat122) February 13, 2020

Eric Stephen, SB Nation, February 13, 2020:

One of baseball's very best teams is also its most contemptible. The Astros are a study in hubris, only emboldened by a report into their cheating by Major League Baseball, which turns out to have been designed more to sweep this scandal under the rug than punish the team.

On the first day of Astros spring training camp ... current Houston players finally apologized. These apologies came in the form of two brief, prepared statements by Alex Bregman and Jose Altuve. The pair spoke for a total of 90 seconds. ...

[T]he standout was owner Jim Crane, a man impervious to personal responsibility. ...

The tone of the Astros' press conference was one of defiance and PR-coached vanilla statements disguised as apologies. But there was no remorse, which is remarkable given the team had literally a month to formulate a plan for contrition.

Then again, this is par for the course for the Astros, who completely bungled the detestable Brandon Taubman incident in October, mishandled the fallout from Yuli Gurriel's racist gesture during the 2017 World Series, and barred a reporter from the clubhouse in 2019 in violation of the collective bargaining agreement. ...

"I don't think I should be held accountable," Crane said Thursday.

Crane, whose Eagle USA company in 2001 reached a settlement with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to pay $8.5 million for discriminating against African American, Hispanic, and female employees (an amount later reduced to $2.5 million on appeal), is no stranger to toothless rebukes. ...

Major League Baseball has demonstrated they won't pursue anything unless its feet are put to the fire. It took them two years to thoroughly investigate the Astros, and only then after a player (Mike Fiers) went on record to disclose the scheme. Manfred's report went out of its way to avoid placing blame on the front office. Now we know that Houston's front office was integrally involved ...

Former Astros manager Hinch ... was asked about further allegations of the Astros using buzzers in 2019 in a redemption plea interview with MLB Network.

"We got investigated for three months, and the commissioner's office did as thorough an investigation anyone could imagine was possible," Hinch said. ... [He] did not deny [the allegations] ...

Joel Sherman, New York Post, February 13, 2020:

[The Astros'] words [and contrition performance art] have difficulty withstanding decency or logic:

— All the Astros offered "remorse" that they illegally stole signs and "regrets" they didn't do more to stop it. But, of course, like all scoundrels, it took being caught to offer those sentiments. And are the sentiments real? Last month at the team's Fan Fest, Jose Altuve and Alex Bregman delivered neither remorse nor regret. Only once properly p.r.-spun did they find their inner ruefulness.

— Most of the Astros talked about learning from this remorseful, regretful experience. But when asked what he learned, Bregman could have been speaking for all his teammates when he thought and hemmed and mainly came up with "things." Probably one of those things is: Don't get caught.

— To a man, all the Astros insisted they would respect any outside judgment on whether the 2017 team would have won without cheating, but internally they believe absolutely they would have come out as champions due to their talent.

Several Astros Express Regret They Kept Cheating (And Winning) For Four Years. Although They Stopped Only After Being Caught, They Claim They Have "Learned" From Scandal

Several Astros and former-Astros apologized yesterday for conspiring to cheat during the 2017 season. They were expressing sorrow and regret, of course, only because their illegal activities became public.

It was reported this week that "everyone" in major league baseball knew the Astros were cheating at least as far back as 2016.

Alex Bregman: "I am really sorry about the choices that were made by my team, by the organization and by me. I have learned from this and I hope to regain the trust of baseball fans." ['Mistakes were made'. Mentions himself last.]

Jose Altuve: "[The] whole Astros organization feels bad for what happened in 2017. ... [I] especially feel remorse for the impact on our fans and the game of baseball." [They felt so bad they resolved to never say anything to anyone forever.]

Yuli Gurriel: "No one put a gun to our head ... It would be a lie to say that one or two people are responsible."

George Springer: "We are all responsible."

Justin Verlander: "Once I spent some time and understood what was happening, I wish I had said more. I can't go back and reverse my decision. I wish I had said more and I didn't." [(1) You had 2+ years to say something. (2) Wish you had said more? What exactly did you say at all?]

Marwin Gonzalez: "I'm remorseful for everything that happened in 2017. ... I wish we could take it back and do it a different way, but there's nothing we can do." [Oh, how I wish we had not cheated and lost in the 2017 ALDS rather than winning the World Series. But that's the way it goes.]

The Astros' timeline looks something like this:

2016: Began (?) cheating. 84-78, 3rd in NL West.

Off-season: Hope fact of cheating does not become public.

2017: Continue cheating in new and different ways. 101-61, 1st in AL West, World Series Champions.

Off-season: Hope fact of cheating does not become public.

2018: Continue cheating in new and different ways. 103-59, 1st in AL West, lost ALCS.

Off-season: Hope fact of cheating does not become public.

2019: Continue cheating in new and different ways. 107-55, 1st in AL West, lost World Series.

Off-season: Hope fact of cheating does not become public. ... Fact of becomes public. (Dammit) ... Express sorrow (in passive voice) about "choices that were made", say everyone "feels bad", wish you had "said more" or could "take it back", emphasize that you "have learned from this".

One important thing the Astros learned is that MLB will not punish cheating players as long as enough of them are cheating.

The Astros Cheating Was An Open Secret Throughout Baseball For Four Seasons. MLB Received Complaints From 10-12 Teams And Did Nothing. Rob Manfred Must Resign.

Commissioner Rob Manfred must resign, immediately.

Since 2016, it had been common knowledge throughout baseball that the Houston Astros were blatantly "cheating their asses off". One team executive told the Washington Post, "Everybody knew it." It was "a big, open secret" among players, scouts, front office executives, even clubhouse staff members.

Executives from two separate clubs told the Post they believed roughly 10-12 teams had filed complaints about the Astros with MLB during the last three or four seasons. If any investigations were done, no one has uttered a peep about it.

Speaking of not uttering a peep, last November, MLB instructed personnel from all 30 teams to not speak to the media about the Astros and the sign-stealing scandal.

Now we know a big reason why.

Barry Svrluga and Dave Sheinin, Washington Post, February 11, 2020:

The Astros' system for using electronics to steal signs came into full public view Nov. 12 ... in a story published by the Athletic. ...

According to people at all levels throughout the sport — players, clubhouse staff members, scouts and executives — the idea that the Astros employed nefarious methods was an open secret.

"The whole industry knows they've been cheating their asses off for three or four years," said an executive from a team that faced the Astros in the playoffs during that span. "Everybody knew it."

Like most of the people interviewed for this story, the executive spoke on the condition of anonymity to defy an MLB request that personnel from other teams refrain from speaking freely about the Astros. He estimated "10 to 12" teams had complained to MLB about the Astros over the years. An executive from another team agreed with that number. ... [The Athletics were one of those teams.]

"It was a big open secret, really big," said a veteran scout from another team whose coverage included the Astros. "Throughout baseball, throughout the scouting community, for several years, not just starting in 2017. I would say probably 2016, maybe earlier, through [2019], things were going on that were blatantly against the rules."

Into this arena stepped the Nationals, appearing in the World Series for the first time in October. ... [A]n entire sport that had a vested interest in having anyone but the Astros win the championship.

As one member of the Nationals put it, "It was amazing, once [it was assured] we were playing the Astros, how many people were coming out of the woodwork to let us know what they were doing." ...

"It was all brought up" in the advance reports the scout handed over to his superiors, one AL scout said. "It was as much a part of the report as anything else, because we had to be prepared to counter it, if that were possible. [Use] a bunch of sign systems . . . just any way possible to try to combat an advantage we all knew they had but couldn't do anything about. It felt helpless. You felt silly almost, sitting there knowing [they were doing something] but having to just put it in a report as if it was a normal thing to contend with. It sucked." ...

One AL executive described meetings of his team's analytics department. The members were so frazzled before playing Houston that they seemed almost resigned to the idea, as the executive said, that "we can't beat them if they're cheating." ...

Many in baseball are asking why it took a whistleblower — Fiers, the former Astros pitcher — to spark MLB to action when so many people had suspected the Astros of wrongdoing for years, with some taking the extra step of reporting those suspicions to MLB. ...

"This is really frustrating," Nationals closer Sean Doolittle tweeted last week. "A month after MLB's report and all we have now is more evidence and more questions. . . . The integrity of the game is at stake and players and fans deserve some answers. ... [P]ast outcomes are being second guessed and even future games will be cast in doubt. There can be no redemption arc after an institutionalized scandal like this until there's some accountability."

Craig Calcaterra, NBC Sports, February 12, 2020:

An MLB spokesman told the Post "[w]e investigate any allegation that's brought to this office," but provided no evidence of what, if any, investigation was undertaken on the power of those 10-12 complaints ... [K]nowing what we know and having seen what MLB has done in the wake of public allegations, it's not unreasonable to believe that such investigations were perfunctory at best ... [or] that anything one could reasonably call an "investigation" was undertaken at all. ...

[T]wo things are abundantly clear: first, any claim by Rob Manfred that he did not know what the Astros were up to prior to November 2019 is simply not credible. And second, the fact that Rob Manfred knew about it and simply did nothing about it before November 2019 was simply reckless.

[Cheating by many teams, not just the Astros] affected the outcome of baseball games. It affected the outcome of series. It affected the outcome of postseasons. ... It stuck a blow to the very basis of competitive sports, which is the notion that the competitions are inherently fair ones.

[At its core] The Commissioner's job [is] ... to ensure the health and integrity of the sport. ... It is a purpose that Rob Manfred, who seems to be far more interesting in making this scandal disappear from the headlines than in comprehensively addressing it, is failing to adequately undertake. ...

Opposing players are angry. Opposing managers, coaches, scouts and executives are angry. ... It's not something that is simply going away because Rob Manfred issued a report last month and suspended a couple of guys.

Indeed, Rob Manfred is one of the primary reasons it's not going to go away. The scandal was allowed to persist because of his failure to act on what we know to have been common knowledge inside the game about the Astros cheating and his failure to act specifically on the at least 10-12 team complaints lodged to Major League Baseball about it. ...

Rob Manfred has utterly mishandled the sign-stealing scandal. And, at this point, it is not enough for him to simply vow to do better. He is obligated, for the sake of his legitimacy as Commissioner of Baseball and for the sake of the game itself, to answer publicly for why he let it get to this state in the first place.

It doesn't matter why Rob Manfred allowed the Astros (and who knows how many other teams) to cheat for several seasons.

The fact remains: He did allow it.

And he must resign.

A.J. Hinch Interviewed About Sign-Stealing; WSJ Reports Scheme Was Set Up In 2016 And Continued Into 2018; Commissioner Manfred Covering Up Extensive Involvement Of Houston's Front Office; Two Yankees Suspect Astros Cheated In 2019, But No One Has Denied MFY Were Cheating 2015-17, So F Them; Charlie Morton Admits He Knew Astros Teammates Were Cheating In 2017

Former Astros manager A.J. Hinch was given a chance in a 25-minute interview to deny accusations that his Astros players wore buzzers under their uniforms to receive signals about certain pitches in 2019. Hinch did not deny the allegations.

MLB has stated it "found no evidence to substantiate" the stories about under-the-uniform devices. Hinch's interview with Tom Verducci aired on the MLB Network this past Friday. (Full interview here.)

I still feel responsible and will always feel responsible as the man out front. As the leader, I was in charge of the team. I put out a statement to apologize. But there is something different to doing it on camera and putting a face to an apology, and saying I'm sorry to the league, to baseball, to fans, to players, to the coaches. ...

It happened on my watch. I'm not proud of that. I'll never be proud of it. I didn't like it. But I have to own it because [I was] in a leadership position. ...

I didn't initiate, or didn't endorse [the scheme]. But I was the manager. I think there is a responsibility when you're in a position to end it. My mindset at that point was to demonstrate that I didn't like it [by smashing a couple of monitors]. In hindsight, I should have had a meeting and faced it ... and ended it. ... I tolerated too much. ...

I wish I would have [stopped it]. ... [T]hat's a big question that I'm going to process over what's now a season-long suspension.

Hinch was asked if the team's 2017 World Series title was tainted.

It's a fair question. And I think everyone is going to have to draw their own conclusion.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that the Astros' front office laid the groundwork for the illegal sign-stealing scheme back in September 2016 using an Excel-based application nicknamed "Codebreaker". The program was introduced by Derek Vigoa, an intern at that time and now the Astros' senior manager of team operations.

The application was used to decode opposing catchers' signs for both home and road games throughout 2017 and for part of 2018. That system evolved over time into banging on a trash can.

Ex-Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow told MLB investigators that he believed "Codebreaker" would be used only to decipher signs from previous-played games. Three Astros employees, Vigoa, Tom Koch-Weser (the Astros' director of advance information), and Matt Hogan, say Luhnow lied to MLB investigators. Koch-Weser said Luhnow would often stop by the Astros' video room during road games and ask: "You guys Codebreaking?" Hogan told MLB that no one hid their activities from Luhnow. "It would have been something to show we were working and get validation of our work." Luhnow received on-going updates about Codebreaker. He claimed he didn't fully read these e-mails.

Commissioner Rob Manfred cleared kept secret (i.e., covered up) additional damaging information on the involvement of the Astros front office. In a January 2, 2020 letter, Manfred told Luhnow "there is more than sufficient evidence to support a conclusion that you knew — and overwhelming evidence that you should have known — that the Astros maintained a sign-stealing program that violated MLB's rules". In his official report, issued five days later, Manfred watered "more than sufficient evidence" down to "some knowledge of those efforts, but he did not give it much attention".

Yankees third baseman Gio Urshela thinks Houston's Jose Altuve "probably knew [a slider] was coming" when he hit a pennant-winning home run in Houston in 2019. And Yankees relief pitcher Adam Ottavino does not believe the Astros stopped cheating after 2017.

For me, when the trash cans stopped, it makes me think they just got smarter with the cheating, not that they stopped. That lends itself to a possible buzzer system. I don't know. ... It's a crazy rabbit hole to go down, for sure. ... [The Altuve at-bat] looks a little fishy, but ... I can't say one way or another.

When The Athletic reported in January that the 2018 Red Sox were being investigated for using their video replay room to steal opponents' signs, it also noted that the Yankees had done the same thing, beginning in 2015. While no one has denied the Yankees used their video room to steal signs from 2015-17, because MLB drew a line before the 2018 season, the MFY are not under investigation. (But last summer in London, Alex Cora implied that Carlos Beltran was up to some funny business with the Yankees. Like Ottovino says, it's hard to think a team would simply stop cheating after 2017.)

Rays pitcher Charlie Morton (a member of the 2017-18 Astros) admitted on Saturday that he knew about the 2017 sign-stealing scheme and understands why people think the Astros championship is not legit.

I was aware of the banging. You could hear the banging in the dugout. I don't know when it dawned on me, but you knew it was going on. ... I regret not doing more to stop it. I don't know what that would have entailed. I think the actions would have been somewhat extreme to stop it. ...

I know what it's like to struggle in the big leagues and I know what it's like to battle for a spot. So to know that was going on and guys were having to deal with that, pitching in the big leagues is tough enough, so that part was difficult. ...

Certainly the public perception of that [World Series] win has changed ... People have weighed in on this. That's the reality of it. There are moments during the World Series that will always be special to me, that won't be "tainted". But ... that's a justified perception to have.

A few weeks ago, White Sox pitcher Dallas Keuchel, a member of the 2017 Astros, apologized for Houston's sign-stealing operation, but fudged and downplayed the illegality of the operation.

First and foremost, I think that apologies should be in order, if not for everybody on the team. And when the stuff was going on, it was never intended to be what it's made to be right now. I think when stuff comes out about things that go on during the course of a big-league ball season, it's always blown up to the point of, "Oh gosh this has never happened before." I'm not going to go into specific detail, but over the course of the playoffs in 2017 everybody was using multiple signs.

For factual purposes, when there's nobody on base, when in the history of Major League Baseball has there been multiple signs? You can go back and watch film of every team in the playoffs, there were probably six out of eight teams using multiple signs. It's just what the state of baseball was at that point in time. Was it against the rules? Yes it was. And I personally am sorry for what's come about, the whole situation. It is what it is and we got to move past that. I never thought anything would've come like it did. I, myself, am sorry. ...

I can tell you not every game there were signs being stolen. Some guys did a really good job. And some times we, as a group, did have signs but we still couldn't hit the pitcher. So it wasn't like every game we had everything going on. The whole system, it really works a little bit, but at the same time there was a human element where some guys were better than our hitters.

You can certainly find fault with (or question) some of what Keuchel said ("it was never intended to be what it's made to be", the Astros did not cheat in every game) but he did apologize, which is far more than the outright evasions or "no comments" offered by Jose Altuve and Alex Bregman.

Keuchel said the Astros' pitchers probably did not benefit from the stolen signs in 2017. Then, in his very next sentence, he said some pitchers benefited, but not him. Most of the time. (How he knows this is not explained.)

Did our pitchers benefit from any of that? I mean, not really. But at the same time, we might've had a few runs more per game. In my instance, I did not. I was actually pretty mad about that. I didn't really enjoy that sometimes. It is what it is.

Jon Greenberg of The Athletic:

In 23 starts in 2017, Keuchel's run support was 5.07 runs per game, less than Charlie Morton's 6.1 and more than Fiers' 4.67. Still, in 12 of Keuchel's starts, he got five or more runs of support. He only got one run of support in Game 1 of the 2017 World Series, giving up three runs in seven innings and taking the loss. In Game 5, he was pulled after 3.2 innings, but the Astros won at home, 13-12.

A few weeks after the Astros' story broke, The Athletic's Molly Knight noted that "little has been written about the damage that such a [sign-stealing] system could have inflicted on fringe baseball players just trying to hold on to their jobs".

After all, one bad outing could lead to a guy being cut from the organization. Or, it could result in a pitcher being optioned to the minor leagues and potentially losing hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The major-league minimum salary in 2017 was $535,000. That year, players on minimum contracts made about $3,300 per game. ... The pay scale in the minor leagues is in a different universe. That same year, some minor-league pitchers were paid as little as $12,000 for the entire season.

There is also the issue of service time. A player must remain on the active roster for a set number of days before he is eligible for arbitration, a process that initiates significant pay bumps. Demotions to the minors delay that mechanism as well.

Knight went back through Houston's 2017 box scores and identified "nine opposing pitchers who were either optioned to the minors or designated for assignment immediately following a shaky outing at Minute Maid Park".

She contacted those nine pitchers: Chase DeJong (Mariners), Matt Strahm (Royals), Anthony Bass (Rangers), Tyler Wilson (Orioles), Dillon Gee (Rangers), Sam Gaviglio (Mariners), Chase Whitley (Rays), Matt Dermody (Blue Jays), and Mike Bolsinger (Blue Jays).

Four of the nine men replied "within minutes". Everyone who spoke to Knight requested anonymity. One pitcher told Knight he "wasn't interested in ever watching his game in Houston again".

David Spampinato, Twitter, January 29: "On August 4th, the game with the most trash can bangs, the Astros scored 16 earned runs. Mike Bolsinger, a Blue Jays reliever, allowed 4 earned runs in 0.1 IP. He never pitched in the big leagues again."

Chris Young Says He Brought The Apple-Watch-Cheating-Idea To The Red Sox From The Yankees

Peter Gammons told an interesting story yesterday:

The Red Sox and Yankees had the dueling Apple watches. One of my favorite human beings to ever play, Chris Young, the outfielder, played for the Yankees in 2016 [actually 2015], came over to the Red Sox, and he told me, "Kind of my idea. I shared the whole Apple watch thing. I got it from the Yankees."

(It's hard to tell whether Gammons says "I shared" or "I started".)

On August 14, 2019, the Globe's Alex Speier wrote an article headlined "Why Red Sox Pitchers Are Looking Inside Their Caps":

In an era when catcher mound visits are finite, and when teams are changing their sign systems all the time to combat increasingly sophisticated sign-stealing, the Red Sox have, in essence, a sign-system cheat sheet inside of their hats. ...

[C]oncerns of in-game espionage have mushroomed in recent years. Increasing technological sophistication — the Hawk-Eye system that beams every camera feed into clubhouses for replay purposes ... have introduced the architecture for newfangled forms of espionage.

"If you're not paranoid about something," said [Heath] Hembree, "you can get got."

That lesson was offered to Hembree in 2016, with the arrival of teammate Chris Young, who signed with the Sox after spending some of 2014 and all of 2015 with the Yankees.

"Once C.Y. got here from the Yankees, he spilled the beans," said Hembree. "It was, 'Oh, OK.' Then [former Yankees catcher Brian] McCann went to the Astros and you were like, 'Oh, OK.' It's everywhere. It's spreading everywhere. Marwin [Gonzalez] went to the Twins [from the Astros], McCann went to the Braves, so it's spreading. You've got to be on top of it."

An Astros Fan Sorted Through 58 Games, 8,274 Pitches, And 1,143 Trash Can Bangs. Here Is What He Found.

SignStealingScandal.com

My name is Tony Adams. I'm an Astros fan. In November 2019, when the videos of the banging during some Astros 2017 games came out, I was horrified. It was clear within a minute of watching it was true — my team had cheated. To understand the scope of the cheating and the players involved, I decided to look at each home game from that season and determine any audio indicators of the sign stealing.

I wrote an application that downloaded the pitch data from MLB's Statcast. This data has a timestamp for every pitch. I then downloaded the videos from YouTube and, using the timestamp, created a spectrogram for every pitch. A spectrogram is a visual representation of the spectrum of frequencies in an audio file. I could then playback the video of the pitches and, helped by the visual of the spectrogram, determine if there was any banging before the pitch.

I initially thought it would be quick work, and the application did make it pretty straightforward, but there are a lot of pitches in an MLB season. I ended up watching and logging over 8,200 pitches. And some more than once to be sure I was as accurate as possible.

How One Angry Astros Fan Sought His Own Answers In The Sign-Stealing Scandal
Marc Carig, The Athletic, January 29, 2020 (emphasis added)

In 2017, Tony Adams, along with his wife and his daughter, were forced from their home by the floodwaters brought by Hurricane Harvey. He left with nothing but a trash bag filled with clothes, and he would not return for another 15 months. His entire neighborhood was devastated. ... "When [the Astros] won, we needed something, I needed something, we all needed something," Adams said of the accomplishment, which he now knows has been tainted. ...

A graphic designer and web developer by trade, Adams wrote an app to pull the Statcast data that he needed. Then he cataloged every instance of trash can banging that he found during the 2017 season. The work was meticulous. It began during the holidays — even before the league had released the findings of its investigation — and culminated on Wednesday, when he publicized the site via his Twitter feed.

"To see that it happened that year, to be honest with you, it's devastating as an Astros fan," said Adams, who sorted through every Astros home game with available video from the 2017 regular season. That covers 58 games and a total of 8,274 pitches. Confirmed by the use of a spectrogram, he logged 1,143 trash can bangs. He insists on allowing readers to draw their own conclusions. But his data seems to tell a story, much of it lining up with commissioner Rob Manfred's nine-page report.

Adams found that the frequency of the banging skyrocketed in late May and seemed to fall off abruptly after Sept. 21. That's the day that Danny Farquhar stepped off the mound and suspected that something was amiss. According to the report, the incident caused a sense of "panic." Adams' data also indicates large differences in terms of trash can banging by player. ...

The revelations of cheating horrified him. Like many, he had read the story in The Athletic, and as a fan his first reaction was disbelief. Then, again like many, he stumbled across the video proof that raced across the internet just a few hours later. There could no longer be doubt. "It took 30 seconds of watching that video to know that it happened, it's real," Adams said. He's been grappling with the disappointment ever since. ...

I had hoped Adams would calculate the stats for the various Astros players in the Trash Can Games. But, as he tweeted yesterday: "I believe you would need a formula for an at-bat to determine if there were signals being given, but that's beyond the scope of what I intended to do. I provided the data so someone smarter than me can work through that."

Here is Houston's record in games with 0, 1-9, 10-29, and 30+ bangs:

    0 bangs:  3- 0
 1- 9 bangs: 13-10
10-29 bangs:  7- 4
30-54 bangs:  9-12
No video:    15- 8
Total:       47-34

In games with 30-54 bangs, the Astros started off 3-7 and 6-11. In games with 40+ bangs, Houston was 4-6.

From The Athletic's comments:

Cameron C.
Kinda makes you wonder why the hell MLB didn't put in this much legwork.

Kevin B.
Because MLB didn't want to know the truth. There were lots rumors out there for a few years, but the MLB wasn't forced to do anything about it until clear evidence was presented and a direct participant confirmed it. It's been an awful stain for the MLB, and they much preferred the blind ignorance over this black mark

Cameron C.
[T]his should be part of the investigation. Find out all the information. This is irrefutable evidence ... They don't even need to talk to players for this. They have it on video.

D P.
It is also proof that players lied in their statements. Surely that invalidates the protection they were promised in exchange for the truth.

Charles R.
MLB had an epidemic of cheating by numerous teams and didn't want the public to know about it.

Geoff W.
Not entirely surprising to see that some of the players with high percentage of pitches with bangs have outlier seasons, like Gonzalez [146 OPS+; 2nd best season: 109], Marisnick [Road: .187/.273/.374 (.647 OPS); home: .308/.373/.636 (1.008 OPS)].

Brian B.
They cheated. No doubt about it and they deserve all the crap coming their way for the rest of their careers. Having said that, the stats show they weren't very good at what they were doing. Go to Baseball Reference and look at the 2017 home/road splits. Batting average, OBP, slugging, total hits, homers, triples, doubles, RBI's etc, were all better away from MMP. They won more games on the road than at home.

Michael C.
Finally, an Astros fan not hell bent on essentially giving the middle finger to the sport and the fans the way the players are. If it were my team, I'd feel just like this guy, and I hate it for real Astros fans. That was such a fun team to watch, and I hate that that title is now legitimately tainted. It didn't have to be, and it shouldn't have been.

Barry B.
As penance they have to hire Dusty Baker for two years.

Re the comment about "an epidemic of cheating by numerous teams", Dan Clark, a writer at TBL Daily, tweeted last Friday:

Just had an interesting follow-up conversation with one of those 21 players who provided me comments on the Astros cheating saga. He told me that an NL team, which had a very successful 2010 season, had a "system in place at its home ballpark that include the use of cameras."

2010 NL teams with 87+ wins: Phillies (97, lost NLCS), Giants (92, won World Series), Reds (91, lost NLDS), Atlanta (91, Lost NLDS), Padres (90).

Who doesn't believe that MLB/Manfred will ignore this "old" information and simply hope that not too many fans hear about it? (I really wonder how much information MLB is sitting on from, say, the past ten years.)

Finally: David Spampinato, Twitter, January 29:

On August 4th, the game with the most trash can bangs, the Astros scored 16 earned runs. Mike Bolsinger, a Blue Jays reliever, allowed 4 earned runs in 0.1 IP. He never pitched in the big leagues again.