01-17-2020, 09:34 PM
Baseball is full of unspoken rules and codes despite the official rule book.
What this comes down to is the speed and ease of which electronics helps decode and transmit the signs. Players using non-electronic means may not always get it right.
Now, Friend of the Show and Dodgers’ starting pitcher Ross Stripling weighs in on The Big Swing Podcast.
“If you’re doing your preparation between games and you’re watching video and you can read coverages or you have someone who has listened into audibles or signs, yeah that is totally legal. Same thing is Joe Blow is on the mound and he’s tipping his fastball and we whistle to the hitter. Stop tipping your pitches. Sign-stealing has been a part of baseball for 100 years. That’s totally legal. Where it starts crossing the line, is when you are using real-time technology to relay when there isn’t someone on base with a camera from centerfield. You’re messing with the integrity of the game that has been played over 100 years.”
“The idea that you can have a camera in centerfield into the catcher’s legs and relay them real-time to a hitter – that’s not baseball – that’s cheating. That would be like having a plug-in to Tom Brady’s headphone to know whatever the play is. That is hacking in, and that’s as egregious as what the Astros are being accused of.”
“When you have players and staff cheating, that’s creating a culture of cheating. That’s a serious issue. It’s not just one player, but you have an entire organization-wide thing. If that’s the case – not saying that it is – it’s going to be a defining moment in Rob Manfred’s career in terms of punishment. Can you take away a World Series?”
What this comes down to is the speed and ease of which electronics helps decode and transmit the signs. Players using non-electronic means may not always get it right.
Now, Friend of the Show and Dodgers’ starting pitcher Ross Stripling weighs in on The Big Swing Podcast.
“If you’re doing your preparation between games and you’re watching video and you can read coverages or you have someone who has listened into audibles or signs, yeah that is totally legal. Same thing is Joe Blow is on the mound and he’s tipping his fastball and we whistle to the hitter. Stop tipping your pitches. Sign-stealing has been a part of baseball for 100 years. That’s totally legal. Where it starts crossing the line, is when you are using real-time technology to relay when there isn’t someone on base with a camera from centerfield. You’re messing with the integrity of the game that has been played over 100 years.”
“The idea that you can have a camera in centerfield into the catcher’s legs and relay them real-time to a hitter – that’s not baseball – that’s cheating. That would be like having a plug-in to Tom Brady’s headphone to know whatever the play is. That is hacking in, and that’s as egregious as what the Astros are being accused of.”
“When you have players and staff cheating, that’s creating a culture of cheating. That’s a serious issue. It’s not just one player, but you have an entire organization-wide thing. If that’s the case – not saying that it is – it’s going to be a defining moment in Rob Manfred’s career in terms of punishment. Can you take away a World Series?”
