WWTBAM Bored

Here's a short list of past transgressions.
Here's my questuon-do you think sign stealing is okay if not involving electronics, etc?
And, if so, why. I think it's interesting.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.si.com ... os-red-sox

Sign stealing seems to have evolved from an amusing oddity to a threat to the integrity of the sport. The top brass are fed up, as with betting a century ago and steroids 15 years ago. Maybe baseball should copy football and let pitchers wear an earpiece.

But my question(s) is/are, is any sign stealing wrong in toto, and don't the involved teams need to be able to execute successfully in the end? IE, if your players are crummy no amount of sign stealing would help.

Methods determine culpability?

How do you stop ANY stealing if you think it's totally wrong?

For me, it's not so much about the act of sign stealing as it is the illegal use of technology to gain an unfair edge. Sign stealing by a runner on second base is not considered cheating -- it's up to the catcher to hide his signs and/or change them up. But on-field technology has been illegal for a long time. That's why first base coaches still have to use manual clickers to time runners and pitchers' moves and such. No cell phones, no cameras, no nothing. It's even in the rule book, to a degree, and has been for a long time.

I wrote a couple of papers in grad school, which argued that sign-stealing is not a moral offense. It is up to the catcher to change the signs as often as needed.

Until recently, there was nothing in the rule books about signs, from catchers or base coaches or the bench. If you think someone has picked up your signs, change them.

Once they added language about not using electronics to do it, and teams used video to do it, that was clearly wrong. But I roll my eyes at the whole thing. Just change your signs, or you know, don't use any. That's not what the game is about.

Ritterskoop wrote: ↑

Sat Feb 22, 2020 1:46 pm

I wrote a couple of papers in grad school, which argued that sign-stealing is not a moral offense. It is up to the catcher to change the signs as often as needed.

Until recently, there was nothing in the rule books about signs, from catchers or base coaches or the bench. If you think someone has picked up your signs, change them.

Once they added language about not using electronics to do it, and teams used video to do it, that was clearly wrong. But I roll my eyes at the whole thing. Just change your signs, or you know, don't use any. That's not what the game is about.

Oh my gosh. Yes.