Story behind the story: Astros sign-stealing scandal just won’t go away

The Houston Astros sign-stealing scandal isn’t going anywhere, as The Athletic published an excerpt of their initial research this week.

How did the Astros sign-stealing scandal come to be? Jeff Luhnow, A.J. Hinch and the players involved can thank The Athletic reporters Ken Rosenthal and Evan Drellich. In an excerpt from Drellich’s upcoming book, “Winning Fixes Everything: How Baseball’s Brightest Minds Created Sports’ Biggest Mess,” the Houston reporter reveals how the sign-stealing scandal came to be.

"“I learned how the Astros used a camera in center field to zoom in on the signs the catcher flashed the pitcher before the pitch. How the Astros had set up a television monitor near their dugout, where the players sit during games, to be able to see that video feed, and how they brazenly banged on a garbage can with a baseball bat and other devices to communicate what they gleaned from that screen. It was an advantage, many players felt, to know what was coming, be it a straight fastball or a bending curveball. And to use technology to gain that knowledge was beyond the pale. This wasn’t just one player breaking the rules, either. This was a World Series–winning team that had collectively cheated, and the public didn’t know it.”"

Drellich added that he was ‘floored’ once he discovered all this. Once it was brought to Rob Manfred’s attention, Luhnow was quickly disbanded as the Astros general manager, and Hinch suspended. Carlos Beltran was fired, while Alex Cora took a year off. Repercussions were felt across baseball.

Houston Astros sign-stealing scandal isn’t going anywhere

As much as some Astros fans may want the sign-stealing scandal to dissipate, it isn’t going anywhere. It’s this generation’s version of the Black Sox scandal — or the closest thing to it.

Mike Fiers and Danny Farquhar were willing to go on the record for Drellich and Rosenthal, and helped reveal Houston’s previously-alleged actions.

“I just want the game to be cleaned up a little bit because there are guys who are losing their jobs because they’re going in, they’re not knowing. Young guys getting hit around in the first couple of innings starting a game, and then they get sent down. It’s bulls— on that end. It’s ruining jobs for younger guys,” Fiers said at the time, per Drellich.

The book itself should include more revelations as to information the 2017 Astros would rather be kept silent. Unfortunately, the bread crumbs suggest there’s far more to learn.