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Boston Red Sox Used Apple Watches To Steal Hand Signals From Yankees (macrumors.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Mac Rumors: Investigators for Major League Baseball believe the Boston Red Sox, currently in first place in the American League East, have used the Apple Watch to illicitly steal hand signals from opposing teams, reports The New York Times. The Red Sox are believed to have stolen hand signals from opponents' catchers in games using video recording equipment and communicated the information with the Apple Watch. An inquiry into the Red Sox' practice started two weeks ago following a complaint from Yankees general manager Brian Cashman, who caught a member of the Red Sox training staff looking at his Apple Watch in the dugout and then relaying information to players. It's believed the information was used to determine the type of pitch that was going to be thrown. Baseball investigators corroborated the claim using video for instant replay and broadcasts before confronting the Red Sox. The team admitted that trainers received signals from video replay personnel and then shared them with some players.

"The Red Sox told league investigators said that team personnel scanning instant- replay video were electronically sending the pitch signs to the trainers, who were then passing the information to the players," reports The New York Times. [...] "The video provided to the commissioner's office by the Yankees was captured during the first two games of the series and included at least three clips. In the clips, the team's assistant athletic trainer, Jon Jochim, is seen looking at his Apple Watch and then passing information to outfielder Brock Holt and second baseman Dustin Pedroia, who was injured at the time but in uniform. In one instance, Pedroia is then seen passing the information to Young."

13 of 197 comments (clear)

  1. Re:"one if by land, two if by sea" by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Can someone please explain how what the Red Sox did was wrong? Is there a rule against observing your opponents? Is it only wrong if it involves an Apple product?

    "You can observe a lot by watching." -- Yogi Berra

  2. Theft by jemmyw · · Score: 4, Funny

    So once these signs were stolen was the opposing team no longer able to use them? How were these signs returned once the thieves had been caught?

    Apart from the use of technology, which might be banned from the field, this seems like a perfectly legitimate tactic.

  3. Sports by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I have noticed a inverse correlation between people who like sports and people who are good at logic, math and technology.

    Sports are where you put the slow children.

    1. Re: Sports by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Surely sports is where you out the fast children?

  4. Re:"one if by land, two if by sea" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Another article I saw made it clear the rule violation would be the use of electronic devices in the dugout. The view of major league baseball is that sign stealing is part of the game, but electronic devices are banned to keep it from being too easy and getting out of hand.

  5. the only remaining question by slashmydots · · Score: 4, Funny

    But how are the New England Patriots involved? It just sounds like their sort of thing.

    1. Re:the only remaining question by msauve · · Score: 3, Funny

      This takes some pressure off, which I understand helps them out.

      --
      "National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
    2. Re:the only remaining question by Zero__Kelvin · · Score: 4, Funny

      Boston is near New England in the same way the nucleus is near the atom.

      --
      Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
  6. Re:Black Sox, Part Deux? by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 3, Funny

    White Sox, Red Sox, New York Mets Sox.

    --
    #DeleteFacebook
  7. Re:Black Sox, Part Deux? by sabbede · · Score: 3, Insightful
    Forget the Sox, think about Boston. The Patriots got busted doing almost the same thing - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

    Where do they play? Boston.

  8. Re: "one if by land, two if by sea" by Z00L00K · · Score: 3, Funny

    It's a bat and a ball, what difference does it make? (Paraphrasing Hillary)

    --
    If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
  9. Re:"one if by land, two if by sea" by parkinglot777 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The catcher then gives the signs to the pitcher about what pitch to throw next. The catcher needs to know what the next pitch is so he can position accordingly to catch it. There are also signals to the defense about positioning, which can change from one pitch to the next.

    So basically the catcher is incompetent and the pitcher is incapable of picking his own pitches?

    Try watching cricket, a similar game in which the guy with the ball makes his own decision on how to deliver it. A fast bowler will choose from an in swinger, out swinger, reverse swing, seam, leg break, off break, yorker, bouncer, slow ball, on a length, full, on the leg side, on off stump, outside off.. all these options and more.

    He also knows how the field is set and will bowl accordingly.

    Why does baseball need every single fucking play directed by someone else?

    You are comparing apple with orange. Baseball is NOT cricket. And it appears that you don't understand baseball at all if you think that the catcher is incompetent and pitcher is incapable of pitching. Baseball is about cooperative between pitcher and catcher. They must be in sync. If they could have telepathy, then there wouldn't be hand signals.

    Cricket, on the other hand, is one side only. It is a completely different game strategy. If you can't distinguish between cricket and baseball, then you shouldn't make this kind of silly comment.

  10. Re:"one if by land, two if by sea" by Cederic · · Score: 3, Informative

    don't tell me about the one variant that can finish in a day

    Average length of a baseball game: 3 hours
    Average length of a T20 cricket game: 3 hours

    Nothing is as boring as a cricket match

    Average 146 pitches per team per baseball game may sound higher than the minimum 120 balls per T20 cricket innings, but at an average of less than 10 hits per game baseball is actually a slower game than Test cricket, which is a five day game. In a T20 innings a team will put bat on ball for most deliveries, scoring off over half of them.

    Or consider baseball's home run rate. 1-5 per match? T20 cricket averages ten 'ball out of the ground' hits a match.

    People clearly enjoy baseball. That's cool. It's just silly though to claim that cricket is by comparison boring.