Baseball’s cheating scandal has knocked the wind out of anyone who believed that trashcans were meant solely for garbage.
Three managers are out of jobs and the legitimacy of at last one World Series title is in question following Major League Baseball’s investigation into sign stealing.
But as ugly as the scandal might be, the cheating part isn’t even baseball’s biggest problem. It’s technology and how to harness and control it.
MLB found that the Astros had stolen opposing catchers’ signs in 2017 using a centerfield camera connected to a monitor in the Houston dugout. Someone would look at the monitor and use a bat to bang on a trashcan to notify the hitter whenever a breaking ball was coming.