Tag: Cheating scandal

A fan trolled George Springer with a ‘curveball’ call before he struck out

George Springer is having a rough spring training.

Man, the Houston Astros are really going to have a long season, aren’t they?

The regular season hasn’t even started yet but the fans are already in mid-summer heckling form. They’re making Houston pay for its cheating scandal one way or another.

George Springer is a player who just continues to be relentlessly trolled over and over again.

Last week, Springer tried to quiet the booing crowd but embarrassed himself by whiffing a fastball so hard I could feel the breeze from the swing come through the screen.

A week later this man was struck out looking on a fastball after a fan yelled “curveball” from the stands.

Whew boy, George. The crowd really enjoyed that one, too. They cheered as he started on his walk to first before pausing and realizing he was called out.

Shoutout to all the Astros fans in the comments saying that the fan’s call meant nothing and Springer thought the pitch missed the zone. Y’all are missing the joke, too, but that’s alright.

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LeBron James goes off on MLB commissioner Rob Manfred and the Houston Astros

The Lakers’ superstar went off on Manfred.

The Houston Astros and MLB commissioner Rob Manfred have been getting ripped to shreds from all angles over the Astros’ cheating scandal and the league’s lack of consequences for it. We’ve heard it from some of the biggest stars in baseball so far — Mike Trout, Cody Bellinger and Aaron Judge included.

You can add LeBron James to that list as one of those angles now.

Manfred is looking absolutely terrible right now for not punishing Houston enough by stripping the Astros of their 2017 World Series title after it was revealed that they were stealing signs throughout that season.

James took to Twitter to voice his displeasure and, hoo boy, did he go in. He didn’t pull any punches with this one.

Ouch.

It may not be James’ sport, but it’s clear that he’s upset about this along with the MLB’s other players. I doubt the Astros’ title will ever be stripped, but man, this thing is getting out of hand.

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MLB has some wild technological ideas to stop teams from stealing signs

Does it really need to be this complicated?

The Houston Astros’ apparent sign-stealing system was as brazen as it was simplistic: Someone in a dugout hallway with access to a live game feed would bang on a trashcan to signify an off-speed pitch.

It took former Astros pitcher Mike Fiers going on the record about the cheating to force a league investigation, but the cheating scandal has done little to calm the paranoia of clubs across baseball. According to a report from Yahoo! Sports, MLB has heard those concerns from teams and has looked into technological options that would make sign stealing virtually impossible.

The Astros allegedly used technology to cheat, and now baseball wants to use technology to stop the cheating. Via Yahoo:

One of the devices in development, described by league sources, is a wearable random-number generator (similar to a push password used for secure log-ins) that corresponds to which sign in a sequence is relevant. This would preserve the existing dynamic of a catcher putting down a sign for interpretation by the pitcher, but overlay it with a level of secure encryption that would be virtually impossible to decode even with a dedicated software program.

Alternatively, the finger system could be replaced by in-ground lights on the mound. Sources with knowledge of the idea said catchers would have access to a control pad that corresponds to a lighting panel visible only to the pitcher. A certain button for a certain light sequence for a certain pitch.

There is where MLB is at right now: Multi-factor authentication to signal pitches is being looked at as a viable option — no VPN required! But honestly, what happens if this code system crashes? Unreliable connectivity is basically the norm at major sporting events. If that system goes down, would they actually delay the game to call IT or would teams be forced to go back to traditional signs? There are a lot of hurdles to work out here.

Instead of those needlessly complicated options, MLB could look into earpieces, but the Yahoo story pointed out that minor-league testing of earpieces brought back complaints about comfort. Still, that would seem like the most logical solution here, especially when something like “comfort” could be improved.

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