Rangers @ Yankees Doubleheader; Yankees split, secure win #69

Wells doubles, bringing in Soto and THE JUDGE, 3-0

Ballgame over! Yankees win! THHHHHEEEEE Yankees win!



THE JUDGE 3-4, 2 R, 1 RBI and a walk; another homer for Smoooooth Jazz!

ALL RISE!

Rangers

One year wonder

Death penalty???? Jail????

Torres drives in Smooooth Jazz, Yankees lead 1-0!!!

I’ll just leave this here.

Yankees are the original cheaters

If the Astros should have received the “death penalty”, what would have been an appropriate punishment for the Yankees if they weren’t protected by MLB? Never forget after Carlos Beltran left NYY for the Astros he told the clubhouse that they were behind the times on stealing signs. I think you need to sit this one out.

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The Houston Chronicle and SNY obtained copies of the 2017 letter from Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred that the Yankees have fought to keep under seal as part of a class-action lawsuit filed by daily fantasy sports players seeking damages from the well-publicized Astros and Boston Red Sox sign-stealing schemes in 2017 and 2018. 

Two seasons before the Astros' infamous trash-can banging scheme, which utilized a center field camera and video monitor placed in a dugout-adjacent tunnel, the Yankees hatched their own sign-stealing system.

According to the letter, staffers "physically relayed" pitch information to the Yankees dugout during home games at Yankee Stadium; similar tactics on the road proved more challenging, requiring the team to “orally provide real-time information” via dugout phones. 

The letter – and the investigation that exposed its scheme – came about after MLB's 2017 investigation into the Red Sox using Apple watches in their dugout to relay opposing signs. The team was fined an unspecified amount for that violation but of greater note, MLB general managers were warned that stealing signs by electronic means would result in greater punishment, and that GMs were charged with informing their managers of the consequences.

That Sept. 15, 2017 letter to all 30 clubs proved crucial in November 2019, when a report in The Athletic detailed the Astros' elaborate sign-stealing scheme, which continued through their run to the 2017 World Series title and into the 2018 season. 

In January 2020, MLB concluded that investigation and suspended GM Jeff Luhnow and manager A.J. Hinch for a year and stripped the Astros of their top two draft picks; Astros owner Jim Crane fired Luhnow and Hinch shortly thereafter. Alex Cora, the Astros bench coach in 2017 and Red Sox's manager in 2018, also was suspended for the 2020 season, but returned to Boston's dugout in 2021. Hinch now manages the Detroit Tigers.

Following the 2018 season, MLB deployed monitors to ensure information was not passed from video replay rooms to dugouts.

MLB released a statement Tuesday noting that the Yankees did not explicitly violate league rules, noting that "at that time, us of the replay room to decode signs was not expressly prohibited by MLB rules as long as the information was not communicated electronically to the dugout." 

A March 27, 2018 directive from MLB made it "explicit to all 30 clubs that any clubhouse or video room equipment could not be used to decode signs and that future violations of electronic sign stealing would would be subject to serious sanctions, including the possible loss of draft picks."

As part of the 2017 Apple Watch investigation, a former Yankees staffer and a Red Sox player who'd previously played for the Yankees revealed to MLB investigators the details of the Yankees' scheme. Their 2015 team won 87 games and lost in the AL wild card game - to the Astros, who made the first of seven playoff appearances over eight seasons. 

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