So for the 3rd time in as many weeks, I read a story about baseball and it’s many unwritten rules. Apparently someone on the Phillies was caught with binoculars in the dugout and the other team is pissed. That would have been the extent of my interest if that was the only part of the story. But then the article says:
They got a warning from MLB? For an unwritten rule?
As a non-baseball watcher, I know at least that baseball has a long history and has a lot of stuff that players do that isn’t in the rulebooks. Another recent article I read listed some of them, and I can understand most of it. #1 and #2 is about showing up your opponents and is similar to not running up the score when you have a big lead in other sports. Others are about different aspects of sportsmanship. #5 is what A-Rod got in trouble with; it’s a social nicety that doesn’t really make sense, but doesn’t hurt either and has a long tradition. I get that
But stealing signs? I’ve never understood that rule. Signs are out in the open and anyone on TV can see it. It’s not a social nicety, it doesn’t affect sportsmanship, and it can determine the outcome of a game. Is it simply that I haven’t been around baseball long enough for it to affect me? It seems to me that everyone should steal signs. And it bothers me that I find out MLB apparently issued an official warning for an unwritten and thus unofficial rule!
Signs from the catcher to the pitcher are not “out in the open.” The catcher keeps his hand tucked between his legs for a reason. Yes, anyone watching TV can see them, but only because we have the benefit of a massively powerful camera to home in on the catcher’s hand.
And i think it does affect sportsmanship. It’s one thing for a runner on second base to use his own eyes to steal signs and quickly pass the information to the hitter by touching his helmet or shifting his feet, but it’s quite something else for a coach to look at the signs using powerful binoculars and then convey that information to the dugout.
Stealing signs is part of the game (although if you get caught, you’ll probably get a fastball in the ribs during your next plate appearance), but it should be done only by the players involved in the game, not by third parties. And, as the others have noted, MLB specifically told clubs back in 2001 that the use of technology to steal signs was prohibited.
Two days before Superbowl 42 he decides to steal the thunder from the game and publicly suggest that Congress should hold hearings about the Patriots stealing signals. Why? Because he’s still butthurt that Donovan McNabb puked away the Eagles chances to finally win a championship for Philadelphia. (Specter is a Senator from Pennsylvania.) So Arlen wants the Patriots/Eagles Superbowl looked into for potential wrongdoing, and for good measure he wants all the Steelers AFC Championship chokejobs against the Patriots looked into as well.
On the morning of Superbowl 42, Mike Golic rightfully pointed out to him that stealing signals is a part of sports (that’s why coaches cover their mouths when they call plays) and the Senate has better things to worry about, Specter likened stealing signals to stealing cars. Yes, he literally made that comparison.
So now it’s your precious Phillies caught doing exactly what the Patriots did. Stealing signs has always been legal in the NFL; their only offense was a technicality, just like the Phillies. So where’s the outrage, you raging cunt?
Fuck Arlen Specter. I hold him in the same kind of contempt I hold lawyers who mount frivolous lawsuits. But Specter was far worse, wasting the time of government during a time of war and imminent financial collapse. Even worse, he didn’t do it because of a stupid sense of honor, but because of blatant homerism. Again, fuck him.
For that matter, where’s the SDMB outrage? This is exactly the same thing the Patriots got busted for, so if your outrage at the Pats doesn’t exactly match your outrage at the Phillies, you are a hypocrite.
Well, if it makes you feel any better, i’m exactly as outraged about this as i was about the New England Patriots. I don’t recall if i actually contributed to any of the threads about the Patriots, but i thought it was cheating and they should have been punished, and i feel basically the same way about this incident.
Not really. I don’t care about baseball. Stealing signs is bad. Yawn. Seems like there was some controversy in a soccer game a few months ago, something about a undetected handball on a crucial goal. Snore. I don’t care about soccer either. I like football. I follow football. Cheating in football outrages me because it affects teams I care about. Ergo, I can be outraged at the Patriots while yawning at the Phillies without being a hypocrite.