Read Loyal Homer and Bleacher Fan’s opinions.
There’s been a great deal of uproar and attention paid lately to the issue of sign stealing in Major League Baseball. As usual, our buddy/”lightening-Rod-for-controversy” (get it???) – New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez – is again in the middle. As first reported by the New York Daily News’ Mark Feinsand, ESPN baseball color commentator (and former Chicago Cubs starting pitcher) Rick Sutcliffe took up airtime to accuse A-Roid (sp??) of verbally feeding Yankees first baseman Mark Teixeira the location of a coming pitch. This, friends, is what we call stealing signs.
Sign stealing, or “tipping pitches” isn’t illegal… technically. It is, however, extremely taboo. It takes pre-planning, forethought, and, in the eyes of some, a willing disrespect for the game of baseball. Perhaps between the “admitted” steroid use and yelling “I got it” while rounding the bases in hopes of messing up the opposing team, A-Roid (sp??) has demonstrated a general disrespect for the game of baseball. Is it that much of a reach to believe he is also tipping pitches for his teammates? Selena Roberts of Sports Illustrated doesn’t think so. In fact, she devoted an entire portion of her book about A-Roid (sp??) to his pitching tipping ways when he was with the Texas Rangers.
The history of tipping pitches is long and storied. Here’s how it works. You just doubled off the wall in left-center (good job!) and are taking your lead off second base. The right handed batter that follows you in the lineup looks out at you after the pitcher agrees to the sign. You saw it was a fastball. So, you grab the bill of your cap with your right hand and take your lead with a slight lean to your right, third base. The batter immediately understands that he’s getting an inside fastball – extremely helpful information! This explanation, though complex, is exactly how sign stealing works. It’s usually subtle (unless you’re A-Roid… sp??). Given that fact, it’s impossible to believe a player when they claim they had no idea they were tipping pitches. If you believe a player when they deny tipping pitches, you may as well believe the NCAA takes recruiting violations seriously or that Artie Lang will be booked on the next episode of Joe Buck Live.
However, the real question for this debate isn’t whether someone did, or did not (yea right), tip pitches. The real question is:
Should sign stealing and pitch tipping be considered cheating by MLB and punished?
Loyal Homer will argue that sign stealing should be considered cheating, and MLB should levy serious punishment to deter it.
Bleacher Fan will argue that sign stealing should not be considered cheating, rather part of the game as a whole. After all, can’t the pitcher and catcher devise a sign sequence the opposition can’t figure out?
Enjoy this debate and weigh in with your opinions. Do you believe sign stealing should be illegal?
Heck no! Its been been going on since baseball was first played in the 1800′s.. This is a great site. I love it. Keep up the good work Bobby Gee..Check out my blog again http://bobbygee.wordpress.com/
Thrilled you love the site, Bobby — please tell all of your friends and your own loyal blog following! I’ll take that opinion into account when I write up the verdict.
Sign stealing in baseball is as old and as common as Bleacher Fan’s jokes. I don’t think MLB will ever do anything about it. I believe it is accepted between teams at almost every level that signs are going to be stolen That is not to say that there are limitations on what is or is not accepted as appropriate methods of stealing. MLB seemingly will not tolerate the use of devices or non-players to steal signs. Such as, don’t place a camera somewhere in the ballpark focused on the catcher, or have a guy in the stands with binoculars. A runner on second who can see the signs, is considered to have earned the ‘right’ to steal a sign. Besides, the validity of stealing signs is somewhat dubious. Consider that the stealer has to 1. Correctly interpret the sign 2. Relay that sign back to the hitter and 3. The sign has to be correctly interpreted by the hitter. Keep in mind that the pitcher and catcher will reset the signs between innings and will sometimes reset them in the middle of an at-bat. My beloved Tribe was accused of sign stealing in the late 90′s when a tv camera was spotted just beyond center. The tribe could / would not verify why the camera was there, so they had to remove it. Bobby Thompson also revealed, several years ago, that the Giants had an elaborate sign stealing scheme while they were on their to the “Shot heard ’round the World” pennant.
Also, I always understood the definition of tipping pitches to be when a pitcher gives up what kind of pitch is coming by some kind of unconcious physical action before the pitch is thrown, similar to a “tell” in poker.
Mr. Doots
BaZing! Nice on Bleacher Fan’s jokes.
Good point on the subtle differences in sign stealing and tipping pitches. Generally, pitch tipping is something an pitcher is doing by accident (see Chicago Cubs pitcher Ryan Dempster and his strange glove waiving in his motion now). Sometimes, however, (and in this context) tipping pitches is not unconscious. There is an entirely other level to this debate about opposing players helping each other by tipping pitches. Basically, a quid pro quo designed to help each player boost their batting averages, respectively. A-Rod has been accused of this, actually. It’s rumored that he was tipping pitches to opposing players from his SS position with the Texas Rangers in return for certain players on opposing teams returning the favor. It’s too speculative (and I was unable to validate the rumors by press time) to be the focal point of this debate topic, but it is a legitimate sub-definition of tipping pitches.