The Houston Astros Were Caught Cheating And Major League Baseball Released A Statement To Announce That They're Cool With That

(Via Jeff Passan of Yahoo! Sports) — The Boston Red Sox were warned that a man credentialed by the Houston Astros might try to steal signs or information from their dugout after the Cleveland Indians caught him taking pictures of their dugout with a cellphone camera during Game 3 of the American League Division Series, sources with knowledge of the situation told Yahoo Sports.

A photograph obtained by Yahoo Sports showed a man named Kyle McLaughlin aiming a cell phone into Cleveland’s dugout during the Indians’ 11-3 loss that ended their season. McLaughlin was the same man caught taking pictures near the Red Sox’s dugout during Game 1 of the AL Championship Series, which was first reported by the Metro Times. McLaughlin was removed by security in Cleveland and Boston, sources said.

While McLaughlin is not listed publicly as an Astros employee, photographs on his Instagram account (which has since been deleted) showed him wearing an Astros ID badge as he posed for a picture in 2016 with Astros owner Jim Crane. In another photo, McLaughlin is standing next to a private plane with logos for the Astros and two companies owned by Crane, Crane Worldwide Logistics and Crane Capital Group. McLaughlin removed “Houston Astros” from his biography on his Instagram page Tuesday night.

It was the culmination of a series of events that cast aspersions on the defending World Series champions, who have been accused of cheating by at least one other organization this season, sources told Yahoo Sports. Major League Baseball, which was made aware of McLaughlin taking the photograph in the Indians’ dugout before the ALCS, declined comment. An Astros spokesman did not respond to a request for comment. McLaughlin did not respond to messages left on two social-media accounts.

MLB significantly beefed up its security presence at Game 3 on Tuesday, according to a league source with knowledge of its staff, sending three people from its baseball-operations office and another six security personnel to monitor the game. The league stationed an employee in each of the teams’ video-review rooms, according to the source. The paranoia among teams, the source said, “is like the NFL these days. Every club thinks the other club is cheating.”

This is not the first investigation into the Astros’ attempts to gain competitive advantages this season, three sources told Yahoo Sports. During a late-August game against Oakland, A’s players noticed Astros players clapping in the dugout before pitches and believed they were relaying stolen signs to pitchers in the batter’s box, sources said. The A’s called the league, which said it would investigate the matter. It’s unclear what the result of the investigation was or whether it remains ongoing.

Two major league players said they have witnessed the Astros hitting a trash can in the dugout in recent years and believe it is a way to relay signals to hitters. The Los Angeles Dodgers also believed the Astros were stealing signs during the World Series last season, according to two sources.

Jeeeeeeeeeeesus Christ, MLB.

Now, before anyone says anything, I would like to acknowledge that sign stealing is one hundred percent legal. It’s part of the game. Always has been, always will be. However, HOW you steal signs can be illegal. You cannot use electronic devices to steal signs, like the Astros have been caught doing. The Red Sox got busted using Apple watches trying to steal signs last year, but John Farrell has since been fired for his disgusting acts that he forced upon his team and the Red Sox have abided by all league rules since then.

But is this statement from Major League Baseball for real? Just to sum it up, we’ve got an employee of the Houston Astros filming the Red Sox dugout during a motherfucking playoff game, and the explanation that we’re given is that this Astros employee was just making sure that the Red Sox weren’t cheating? And Major League Baseball BOUGHT that?? Shouldn’t that be the LEAGUE’s job to monitor something like that?

This is like that story from the other day where the guy was arrested in an internet sex sting and his defense was that he was only there because he wanted to see a sex sting in action. Only in that story, the guy still got arrested. In this story, Major League Baseball was like, “Oh, he was just video taping the Red Sox dugout during a playoff game to make sure that THEY weren’t cheating? Ohhhhhh, oh, okay. Yeah, that checks out. Nothing to see here.”