Cheated tells the crazy story of sign-stealing in baseball

LOS ANGELES — It’s 2021 and the Dodgers are in the midst of another pennant race, but with the arrival of the Houston Astros in town for a two-game set starting on Tuesday, raw memories of the oh-so-close 2017 campaign are going to be at the front of the minds of Dodger fans. For many, it was a great team unfairly denied their place in baseball history.

But, ironically, the Dodgers inadvertently made the history books that year anyway, but through a most unwelcome means: the infamous Astros* sign-stealing scandal. On a recent episode of the Bleed Los podcast, writer Andy Martino broke down the entire messy episode and the aftermath that followed. He shared his impeccable research and reporting that led to the book Cheated: The Inside Story of the Astros Scandal and a Colorful History of Sign Stealing (Doubleday, 2021).

Sign stealing a part of baseball

Martino made clear at the outset of the the podcast that sign-stealing has always been a part of baseball. He recounted for the Bleed Los crew the story of sign stealing episodes that went back 100 years or more, including some rather ingenious tricks involving operas glasses and underground wires employed by the Philadelphia Phillies in 1900.

And in fact, our beloved Dodgers were victims of one of the most notorious cases of sign stealing, when Dodger pitcher Ralph Branca gave up the famous 1951 “shot heard ’round the world” home run to Bobby Thompson to give the Giants the pennant that year. For the Giants, it was a handheld telescope manned by a coach, who then pressed a buzzer that sounded in the bullpen. Then, the Giants’ batter was relayed the signal by having a player in the bullpen either toss a ball in the air or hold it still. “It’s been going on forever,” Martino acknowledged, “but when it happened it’s always been treated as a big baseball crime. Ralph Branca, the last sixty years of his life were impacted by this.”

However, Martino is quick to point out a clear distinction between gamesmanship and outright cheating. “There’s a quote in the introduction of the book from Ty Cobb, it’s more than 100 years old,” Martino explained, “and he says the use of ‘outside devices’– he meant binoculars or opera glasses but the same thing could be applied to a high speed camera in 2017 — then that’s wrong. That’s cheating.”

Astros* were a whole different level

As far as the Astros* are concerned, it seems like the garbage can thing was just the tip of the iceberg. Commenting on the famous youtube video from baseball commentator Jomboy, Martino said that in a way that famous video got the Astros* set off a fire storm throughout baseball. “that video was being texted around baseball, not just media, but GMs at the time, and I was sending that video to people to see what they thought about it, and rage was coming back. ”

Pivotal Game 5 of the World Series

Of course, in the minds of Dodger fans, it all comes down to that pivotal Game 5 of the 2017 World Series, when Clayton Kershaw was on the mound and the Dodgers had staked him to a 4-0 lead, a lead that 99 times out of 100 with Kershaw will hold up just fine. Except it didn’t. The Astros* hitters seemed immune to Kershaw’s breaking pitches. He threw 39 sliders that day and got a grand total of ONE swing-and-miss. It just doesn’t pass the smell test, no matter how much Carlos Correa might whine about it.

A failure of leadership

Who are the villains in all this? For Martino, there are many, not the least of which is the weak leadership of Houston manager AJ Hinch. “He didn’t want to disrupt anything,” said Martino of the Astros* skipper. “Perhaps a Carlos Beltran or an Alex Cora were able to take this over themselves, and the manager didn’t have the gravitas to stop what he said he believed was wrong.”

Martino firmly believes that the message has been sent, at least for this generation of players. “This is not going to happen again anytime soon,” he said, “but technology that hasn’t been invented yet, players who didn’t live this in 2040 will absolutely be trying to figure something out.”

Lovely. But for now, the only thing Dodger fans can do is voice their disapproval of what went down in 2017, and Tuesday and Wednesday night will be prime opportunities.

For the rest of this fascinating and infuriating episode, or any Bleed Los podcast, check out their site or any podcast app.