Let’s take one more look back at the sign-stealing saga before spring training begins

In a recent story published by The Star, someone rhetorically asked why there has been such an uproar about the Houston Astros’ sign-stealing scheme: hasn’t stealing signs always been part of the game?

Yes, but some sign-stealing is considered OK (sort of … more on that in a minute) and some sign-stealing is considered cheating.

If you want to know the difference, you’ve come to the right place.

Semi-OK sign-stealing

A runner on second base has an excellent view of the catcher’s signs, so in that situation catchers will use more than one sign.

Here’s an example:

Last sign, shake, first.

That means the catcher can give as many signs as he likes, but the only sign that matters is the last one. If the pitcher shakes off that pitch, the catcher will give another series of signs and this time the only sign that matters is the first one.

There are a lot of sign systems and every pitcher has one or two he’s comfortable using.

Some get overly complicated, like outs plus one; take the number of outs in the inning and the live sign is the one that follows that number. No outs and it’s the first sign; one out it’s the second sign; two outs and the third sign is the one that matters.

When you see a catcher wait for a new pitcher arrive from the bullpen and have a brief conversation on the mound, odds are he’s confirming what sign system they’ll be using.

Now let’s say a runner on second base sees a few pitches and is able to decode the sign system being used.

Trying to signal a specific pitch to the hitter is too complicated, so the runner on second will simplify things and let the hitter know if a fastball or off-speed pitch is about to be thrown. One way the runner might do this by putting his hands on his hips for fastball and hand on his knees for off-speed. Not only are there a bunch of sign systems, there are a bunch of ways to signal to the hitter what’s coming next.

This kind of sign-stealing has been around forever and any runner on second base can try to do it.

It’s only considered semi-OK because if a catcher suspects signs are being stolen, the good ones put a stop to it.

Former Kansas City Royals catcher Jason Kendall admits that one of the reasons he kept his mask on when he went to the mound was so he could yell at the runner on second base while fans thought he was talking to the pitcher.

Kendall would inform the sign-stealer that if he saw anymore signals to the hitter, someone was getting a fastball in the ribs and it just might be the runner on second base next time he came to the plate. Then he’d go back behind the plate and tell the batter the same thing: any more sign-stealing and you better get ready to duck.

So far we’ve got on-field competitors competing: one team trying to steal signs and the other team trying to stop it.

This is considered part of the game.

How the Astros crossed the line

Without a runner on second base the catcher can go back to using a single sign because it’s simpler for everybody.

But it seems the Astros had a camera in centerfield and were using that to steal signs. Houston would need its own camera system because the images we see on our TVs are delayed by a few seconds.

So while any runner can try to steal signs, the Astros set up a system only they had access to and that gave them an unfair advantage. They also took advantage of catchers assuming that no runner on second base meant they could use a single sign.

But apparently, rumors of what the Astros were doing got around and during the playoffs catchers were using multiple signs without a runner on second base — and that meant those catchers thought someone might be stealing signs from the stands.

Anyone who knows baseball could see the catchers were suspicious, so claims of ignorance aren’t believable.

How to fix the problem

For the solution to all this we go back to the very old-school Jason Kendall ... and he blames the catchers.

As Kendall points out, if the Astros were signaling pitches to their hitters by whistling or banging on trash cans, opposing catchers could hear that, too. After calling a couple change-ups and hearing a trash can get whacked, a game-aware catcher should have known something was going on.

Why didn’t one of them do something?

But as Kendall also points out, the game isn’t played that way anymore. Nobody wants a confrontation, nobody wants to fight and nobody wants to get fined.

These days you can get in trouble for sliding hard, so MLB might frown on a catcher walking over to the opposing dugout and informing an entire team that if he hears one more whistle or trash can get whacked, the hitter is going to get a fastball in the ribs.

If some catcher had done that and MLB allowed it, perhaps they wouldn’t be in the mess they currently have on their hands.

This story was originally published February 10, 2020 at 4:24 PM.