Have the Baltimore Orioles ever directly been hurt by Houston’s alleged sign-stealing? Odds are that they have. In 2016 they were 1-6 against Houston, 1-5 in 2017, and 1-6 again in 2018. There’s your answer as to why it’s such a big deal.
Mind you, save for 2018 the aforementioned seasons were during good times for the Orioles franchise. Yet they just couldn’t get over the hump against a Houston Astros team which now appears might have had an unfair advantage. A big time unfair advantage.
I said this the other day, but had the 2016 Orioles not been at a disadvantage against this Houston team, perhaps they host the 2016 Wild Card Game. And who knows how things play out. It sounds like a petty point, but…is it really?
Baseball needs to find a way to clean this up. The people who precipitated this need to be held accountable. Because otherwise the sport turns into he who’s willing to stoop the lowest to cheat, wins. Nobody wants that.
Again, this is a pretty big deal. And the argument is akin to the analytics vs. feel for the game discussion. My personal opinion is that baseball should not and cannot belong to computer nerds. People behind a screen thinking they know better than the powers that be.
And this is similar. If we’re going to allow teams to find inventive manners to cheat, we might as well just resign ourselves to the fact that whomever has the best equipment and the most inventive ideas is going to win. It’ll no longer be about who has better talent and out-thinks their opponent the best. And again, nobody wants that.
Birdland Crush 