The fact that technological advancements also have a dark side became clear a few years ago when Major League Baseball was deeply embarrassed by the Houston Astros’ sign-stealing scandal. The 2018 champions were alleged to have owed part of their success to cheating. Since then, it has been up to the league to stay one step ahead of teams with malicious intent in a technological arms race.

Sign stealing

Whenever an Astros batter stepped into the batter’s box during that winning streak, he would strain his ears to hear if there was drumming on an upside-down trash can coming from the dugout. If that was the case, he could expect an off-speed pitch. A scout in the outfield had just had enough time at that moment to decipher the catcher’s signal to the mound and relay it to the dugout.

Although the Astros were by no means the only team to use such tactics—the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox, to name just two, were also strongly linked to them—it certainly didn’t hurt the Texas organization. Whether it actually secured them the title is something you can never say with absolute certainty, but for many fans, there will still be a small asterisk next to that title.

Whereas teams used to have to go to great lengths to first decipher the signs and then get them to the batter in time—there were even reports of people sitting in the stands with sniper rifles to get a better view of the catcher’s hands through the scope—these days, of course, the process has become much easier, and above all, much faster.

PitchCom

Pitch Com was introduced to eliminate this kind of practice in the future. It is a system that allows the catcher and pitcher to communicate with each other without others being able to eavesdrop. At least, that is the intention—though who knows, perhaps clever hackers are already working on breaking into this communication channel as well.

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Not everyone is happy about this. Max Scherzer, for one, thinks it’s all nonsense. “Stealing each other’s signs is just part of the game,” says the former Astros pitcher. He even enjoyed coming up with ways, together with his catcher, to outsmart the opposition. However, the chances of getting the same response from a pitcher who was knocked out by the cheating Astros seem slim. In some cases, careers were even affected by this cheating, so people like Scherzer may just have to get used to the fact that this will be the future of the sport.