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Former Houston Astro: Astros Used Center Field Camera To Steal Signs

   DailyWire.com
Mike Fiers #50 of the Oakland Athletics pitches during the game against the New York Yankees at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum on August 21, 2019 in Oakland, California.
Photo by Michael Zagaris/Oakland Athletics/Getty Images

Following accusations of sign-stealing that were leveled at the Houston Astros during the MLB playoffs, a former Houston Astros pitcher has come forward to claim that the team used a camera feed from center field to steal signs as far back as 2017, the year the Astros won the World Series.

As reported in The Athletic by Ken Rosenthal and Evan Dreilich, Mike Fiers, a current Oakland Athletic who went 21-19 for the Astros between 2015 and 2017, joined three other members from the Astros’ 2017 organization to assert that the team had cheated.

Fiers stated, “That’s not playing the game the right way. They were advanced and willing to go above and beyond to win.”  According to Rosenthal and Drellich, “at least two uniformed Astros” were necessary to make the system work; the system “required technical video knowledge and required the direct aid of at least some on the baseball operations staff.”

The system reportedly had the center field camera spot the opposing catcher’s signs, which were then flashed to a TV on a wall near the Astros’ dugout. Rosenthal and Drelich explained, “Team employees and players would watch the screen during the game and try to decode signs — sitting opposite the screen on massage tables in a wide hallway [between the dugout and clubhouse]. When the onlookers believed they had decoded the signs, the expected pitch would be communicated via a loud noise — specifically, banging on a trash can, which sat in the tunnel. Normally, the bangs would mean a breaking ball or off-speed pitch was coming.”

Fiers stated he wants “the game to be cleaned up a little bit because there are guys who are losing their jobs because they’re going in there not knowing.”

Danny Farquhar, who faced the Astros as a member of the Chicago White Sox, told The Athletic, “There was a banging from the dugout, almost like a bat hitting the bat rack every time a changeup signal got put down. After the third one, I stepped off. I was throwing some really good changeups, and they were getting fouled off. After the third bang, I stepped off.”

Prior criticisms of the Astros were lodged by the New York Yankees, as SNY’s Andy Martino reported after game 1 of the ALCS:

Yankees players and coaches became angry with the Astros during Game 1 of the ALCS when they noticed a whistling sound in the Astros’ dugout — which they believed was an over-the-line example of sign stealing, and a violation of the game’s unwritten rules. According to three sources, a Yankees coach noticed a whistling sound in the opposing dugout on certain pitches on Saturday night in Houston. The Yankees started yelling across the field, and people in the dugouts argued back and forth. “The whole dugout was pissed,” said one source. “Everyone was chirping.”

Cleveland.com reported in October 2018, after the Astros had defeated the Cleveland Indians in the ALDS, “For almost two weeks before the ALDS, the Indians worked hard to protect their signs because of Houston’s reputation for stealing signs. The Astros reportedly try to train cameras on the opposing catcher, manager and bench coach in an effort to steal signs and pick up tendencies.”

Bleacher Report noted, “MLB cleared Houston of any wrongdoing in 2018 and 2019.”

 

 

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