My favorite sign-stealing story was this one (
SIGNS OF THE TIMES – Sun Sentinel)
Quote:
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1948: Using a telescope from a World War II navy ship, future Hall of Famers Bob Lemon and Bob Feller stole signs from opposing catchers. When they weren't pitching for Cleveland, Lemon and Feller took the telescope into the scoreboard and called out the pitches to a groundskeeper, who signaled to the hitter through an opening in the out-of-town scores section of the scoreboard.
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Where's that groundswell of support to kick Lemon and Feller out of the Hall of Fame?
Or how Bobby Thomson's "shot heard round the world" was probably sign stealing enabled, using a buzzer device. Or how the 1980s White Sox used a bulb on the scoreboard.
I might have even written like 8000 words about it:
The Astros and the long history of sign-stealing in baseball - Royals Review
But, of course none of that matters, right? Let's just put our hands in our ears and talk about how it was just the Astros and in the late 2010s. It's never happened before or since. And it definitely was just the Astros and a couple of people connected to the Astros. That definitely wasn't a cynical play by MLB to try to sweep this all under the rug. And it definitely didn't work.
It's especially stupid to see people like Brian Cashman blame his Yankees woes on that when they got fined in 2017 for it. Or that jackass Joe Kelly endearing himself to Dodgers fans by going after the Astros when, of course, he was on the Red Sox team that also got fined in 2017 for stealing signs. Then again, pretty much every source named the Dodgers as a team doing it, too, but, no, Dodger fans insist their team must be clean. You know, a team that loved to fake injuries to pitchers to manipulate the 40-man. Pure as the driven snow.
SI