Baseball has a long memory.
As anyone who has seen “Field of Dreams” or “Eight Men Out” knows, more than a century ago players for the Chicago White Sox were bribed to take a dive in the World Series.
And a hundred years from now, fans on Mars will know that their home-planet Astros who used to play in Houston are forever tainted. They won the 2017 World Series aided by sign-stealing accomplished through what then passed for technology.
If they’d swiped the opponents’ signals the old-fashioned way — with only the naked eye and no electronics — they’d have been lauded for their craftiness and baseball savvy.
If that makes it seem like it’s OK to use a credit card number you “earn” as a pickpocket, but not one that you get by stealing an identity on the internet, it’s time to be reminded we’re talking about sports. And sports, especially baseball, are full of honorable and dishonorable deceit.
So, when the Astros punched their tickets to a fifth consecutive ALCS on Tuesday by beating the White Sox, it concluded a postseason series between the franchise that cheated to win a World Series and the one that broke the rules to lose one.
White Sox reliever Ryan Tepera was still suspicious after the White Sox beat the visiting Astros in Chicago on Sunday, following Houston winning the first two games of the series 6-1 and 9-4 at home.
The Astros struck out 16 times in the 12-6 road loss and 16, total, in the two home wins. Tepera implied the disparity meant they were still stealing signs at Minute Maid Park, their home stadium.
But the Astros clinched the series with 14 hits and nine strikeouts in a 10-1 romp Tuesday at the White Sox’s home park, Guaranteed Rate Field.
Now Houston plays Boston in a rematch of the 2018 American League championship series. The Red Sox happen to be managed by Alex Cora, who was the Astros’ bench coach in 2017 and was suspended a year for his significant role in the scandal.
I guess I cheated Tuesday since I used technology to watch the game “with” my friends in Chicago while at home in Kapahulu.
Most of them still live there and are rabid White Sox fans. That includes Maury Bell, who is from Houston and used to wear an Astros jersey when we were in college 40 years ago. “Been a Sox fan for a long time,” he texted. “And could never root for cheaters.”
Neal Steinken claims to have watched every White Sox game this year. Remembering how passionate my roommate was about them, I believe him. I haven’t forgiven him for the White Sox stealing Hall of Fame catcher Carlton Fisk in 1981 (as if he had something to do with it). Back then I cared a lot about the Red Sox, and considered attaining players via free agency a form of cheating — except, of course, when my team did it.
Although Cora said he is a changed man after his suspension, Neal isn’t buying it and thinks he’s still got an illegal sign-stealing system operating at Fenway Park.
“Boston is cheating now,” he said. “Refer to (Lucas) Giolito’s last start there (in April), with a camera in the scoreboard and the hitters knowing when every change-up was coming.”
I looked it up and discovered that the Chicago ace said he gave up eight runs in one inning because his change-up was lousy, not because the Boston batters knew when it was coming.
And two months later Giolito was the one accused of cheating, by Twins third baseman Josh Donaldson.
After he hit a homer off Giolito, Donaldson claimed Giolito’s pitches were breaking a lot less than they did before MLB’s midseason crackdown on pitchers using foreign substances to improve their grip on the ball. Giolito “was probably cheating,” he said.
Pitchers throw from a mound. They control the tempo of the action, and the direction and velocity of a very hard ball. The odds are in their favor.
It’s no wonder batters will try anything they think they can get away with to know what’s coming.
