Scandal rocked Major League Baseball this week when a commissioner’s report revealed that the Houston Astros engaged in egregious levels of sign-stealing during their 2017 championship season. The report implicated everyone from the team’s general manager to the field manager and several players. The Astros’ bench coach at the time, Alex Cora, who was, until two days ago, the current manager of the Boston Red Sox, is alleged to have been the mastermind of the whole scheme. The Red Sox, meanwhile were also accused of stealing signs through electronic means in 2017 and potentially did it again in 2018 when they won the World Series.

 

By now, if you are not a baseball fan, you may be thoroughly confused by this whole mess. But whether you really understand the significance of stealing signs (in this case, the communication between the catcher and the pitcher about which pitch to throw) and how it could actually help a team win a game, is less important than knowing one essential fact: these actions are considered cheating.

 

To some extent, occasional sign-stealing and other forms of gamesmanship have long been considered a “part of the game,” even if they technically violated the rules. A pitcher who “doctors” a baseball or a batter who uses excessive pine tar or who stands a few inches out of the batter’s box are actions that are frowned upon but have typically been treated in the same way we might view someone going a few miles over the speed limit. Only in the worst cases have they resulted in consequences for the violators. What made this recent scandal so different and noteworthy was 1) the systematic and persistent way in which the signs were stolen frequently and then communicated directly to the batter, and 2) the use of sophisticated technology to assist in the whole operation. (Once again proving that too much technology can be a dangerous thing.)

 

As a longtime baseball fan, I have seen a few cheating scandals over the years: Pete Rose betting on games, players using performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) or other substances, for example, but the extent to which this was a team effort rather than one individual’s poor decision makes this situation different. Why would a professional team resort to such a high degree of sustained rule breaking? The answer seems to be similar to the rationale of the parents involved in the Varsity Blues college scandal last year: even a small competitive advantage is worth taking when the stakes are perceived to be so high. Simply put, the ends justify the means. I think there is also a sense among the “cheating elite” that “everyone does it; we’re just doing it smarter than everyone else.”

 

Still, once the dust settles and a few people lose their jobs or garner suspensions, my guess is this scandal will have a limited impact on MLB in general or on fans’ interest in the game. While many fans will see the World Series wins in 2017 and 2018 as “tainted,” their reactions will actually only enhance some hometown support and fuel the flames of certain rivalries like the Yankees and Red Sox. People keep flocking to the ballparks or watching on TV. New stadiums have been built all around the country and have helped revitalize urban areas. (Remember what Coors Field did for LoDo?) The entertainment value remains for both the casual and hard-core fan, and there are plenty of exciting new players to cheer for. If this scandal reminds us that sometimes our favorite players or teams cross the line in trying to win, I doubt that will chase us off altogether. After all, we have all become a little jaded about sports, in the same way we are about politics: we expect a little bit of rule-bending; we just don’t want it to go overboard or make us feel too guilty about the teams or candidates we support. Clever gamesmanship, yes; outright cheating, no.

 

In the meantime, these reminders about the business of sport help remind me that scholastic athletics should continue to be about so much more than winning at all costs. Let’s all do what we can to keep athletics at this level focused on what is truly important: sportsmanship, character, learning how to play the game the right way. All of these are the goals of our program within the larger context of a school environment committed to helping our students learn and grow in all they do.