MLB issues historic punishment for Astros following sign-stealing investigation

Jeff Luhnow.
(Image credit: Bob Levey/Getty Images)

Major League Baseball brought the hammer down on the Houston Astros after an investigation into allegations about the team using technology to steal signs during the 2017 season, in which they won the World Series. The MLB's ruling led the team's owner Jim Crane to fire manager A.J. Hinch and general manager Jeff Lunhow.

Players are getting off free, despite the fact that many actively participated in the scheme. Sign-stealing has long been part of the game and is perfectly legal when players decipher their opponents' signals on the field of play, but the Astros took things too far for the league when they brought technology into it. Houston would reportedly rout the feed from their home park's center field camera to a screen in the clubhouse where opposing team's signs would be decoded. Someone would then bang on a trashcan to let hitters know what pitch was on its way.

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Tim O'Donnell

Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.