If You Ain’t Cheatin’ You Ain't’ Tryin’ - Astros Scandal

Disclaimer: I am a novice baseball spectator so my opinions do not lend themselves to any kind of self proposed expertise. These opinions rely heavily on common sense as a sports fan. And if these opinions strike (oh looks it’s a pun!) you as especially egregious then blame Wiley. :)

In the weeks following the Astros cheating scandal, I as a self-admitted post-regular season baseball fan have been grappling with how I feel about it. I’m generally a sports purist where I focus on performance and leave all the off-court/off-field personality quibbles and drama to the gossip lovers. I can appreciate great plays and great players on teams other than those I claim as my own. I just love watching a good performance. That being said, I’ve been known to troll Patriots fans for the bevy of cheating scandals and to give slightly less merit to their organization. I also understand Cooperstown for not wanting to admit proven steroid abusers to the Hall of Fame. So where then do I align with this scandal? Well, cheating is wrong. However, after a conversation with my good friend, favorite photographer and long time Houston Sports Fan, Wiley Henry, I’m convinced that the Astros - well at least the players, deserve a pass and here’s why.

Scouting Reports. Most teams in most sports receive scouting reports against the team that they will be playing against prior to their match up. Scouting reports which will list the strengths and weaknesses of their opponents. In baseball I would assume it would list which types of pitches a batter would be more apt to hit/miss or the types of pitches a pitcher was most likely to throw. Upon approaching the plate a batter in most cases is aware of what types of pitches he is most likely to expect. If 50% of Nolan Ryan’s pitches were fast balls then that batter predicting he would be getting a fast ball thrown to him, would be right half of the time, not bad odds. As an outsider, I have no idea how in depth the scouting reports are. I’m positive they have people for that, like someone on the staff whose job it is to gather information about a team’s opponents. If you fail to prepare then you prepare to fail right? My point here is that going into a game, the teams know a lot about each other both from a batting and pitching perspective and we don’t call that cheating, we call it preparation.

Location. Let’s say Houston’s trashcan operative, we’ll call him Agent T, is over there clanging his little heart out to tell our guy which pitch Aroldis Chapman is about to throw. Ok great, it’s a slider...but where is the pitch coming and how fast is it coming? Ok well we probably know how fast that pitch is coming because it was on the scouting report. Is the pitch coming to my guy George Springer or Jose Altuve? The pitch will definitely look different for these batters given the height difference so, Chapman adjusts. I think it’s a bit insulting to think that just by knowing what type of pitch Clayton Kershaw is throwing, that the batter is going to be able to hit it. But still, why should we reward players for hitting pitches when they know exactly what kind of pitch it is and how fast it’s coming? Oh wait, that sounds a lot like the Home Run Derby. Well, even the worst hitters can compete in the homerun derby since these are easy pitches right? No, let’s send our best guys to hit the easy pitches and make it a competition in which the winner will receive a title, trophy and a little six-figure check. Where’s the beleaguered emoji when I need it? We watch and respect the homerun derby winners without question because we know it’s NOT THAT EASY.

Pot Meet Kettle. At this point you’re saying, “Well yeah but if this method of cheating isn’t even that effective then why did they do it?”. My answer is mostly, I don’t f****** know. I’m sure there is a slight edge to knowing the type of pitch but perhaps more importantly the confidence in “knowing” the pitch might exert something extra in the way of effort for the batter. I mean if the cheating was so pervasive within the organization you would think more championships would have been won. I’ve seen in recent days that more and more players have begun to pile on to the criticism of the Astros. You’ve heard of “The Big Show”, well welcome to “The Shit Show”. You know the saying “You point one finger at someone and there are four pointing back at yourself” well I think that could be the case here. I don’t think the Astros are the first or last baseball franchise that have gone outside the rules to try and obtain an edge (besides the obvious multitude of steroid scandals). In fact, our sports culture in Houston in general across all our sports isn’t even rabib and committed enough to lend itself to extraordinary measures to ensure winning in my opinion. I mean we’re obviously not that good at it probably because we haven’t had a lot of practice - someone get Belichick on the phone post haste! I expect there will be more teams outed in coming months for sign stealing or something similar.