Astros cleared of cheating accusations by the Yankees

The Yankees have resorted to finger-pointing and accusing the Astros of stealing signs and cheating in Game 1 of the ALCS. Sound familiar?

I guess it comes with the territory of being one of the best teams in baseball. The Astros were accused of cheating by Boston in 2018, Trevor Bauer claimed Houston’s pitchers of doctoring the balls, and now the New York Yankees accused the Astros of stealing signs and relaying them to the batters.

I guess if you can’t beat a team fairly and squarely, the next best thing to do is accuse your opponent of cheating, it’s surely not your own fault. But, as in the past, according to sources, MLB officials have found no wrongdoing and the Astros are once again cleared of cheating.

In 2018, it was claimed that the Astros were filming the Cleveland Indians dugout to steal signs during the ALDS, and possibly, also in Boston in the ALCS. In an investigation, it was determined that there was indeed someone taking videos but claimed it was to ensure the other teams weren’t cheating and the matter was closed by MLB officials.

Well, here we are in 2019 postseason play and the accusations are again flying around. Apparently, some of the Yankees coaches and players were getting rather upset in their dugout during Game 1 of the ALCS. They claimed that the Astros were somehow stealing the signs and relaying them to the batter by way of special whistling sounds. Sources in New York said some words were even traded back and forth between dugouts.

According to Ken Rosenthal, an MLB Network insider, there were MLB officials in the dugout and in the camera area by the dugout during the game and neither official heard any suspicious whistling. Not to mention the Astros lost that game 7-0. So, if they were cheating, they were doing a pretty lousy job of it.

I’m thinking, maybe these teams should be worrying more about how they’re performing on the field and not pay so much attention to what other teams are doing. As one local reporter put it, maybe they should just put their big-boy pants on.