Boston Red Sox used Apple Watches to steal signs against New York Yankees

“For decades, spying on another team has been as much a part of the gamesmanship of baseball as brushback pitches and hard slides. The Red Sox have apparently added a modern — and illicit — twist: They used an Apple Watch to gain an advantage against the Yankees and other teams,” Michael S. Schmidt reports for The New York Times. “Investigators for Major League Baseball have determined that the Boston Red Sox, who are in first place in the American League East and likely headed to the playoffs, executed a scheme to illicitly steal hand signals from opponents’ catchers in games against the second-place Yankees and other teams, according to several people briefed on the matter.”

“The baseball inquiry began about two weeks ago, after the Yankees’ general manager, Brian Cashman, filed a detailed complaint with the commissioner’s office that included video the Yankees shot of the Red Sox dugout during a three-game series in Boston last month,” Schmidt reports. “The Yankees, who had long been suspicious of the Red Sox stealing catchers’ signs in Fenway Park, contended the video showed a member of the Red Sox training staff looking at his Apple Watch in the dugout and then relaying a message to players, who may have then been able to use the information to know the type of pitch that was going to be thrown, according to the people familiar with the case.”

 
“Baseball investigators corroborated the Yankees’ claims based on video the commissioner’s office uses for instant replay and broadcasts, the people said. The commissioner’s office then confronted the Red Sox, who admitted that their trainers had received signals from video replay personnel and then relayed that information to some players — an operation that had been in place for at least several weeks,” Schmidt reports. “The Red Sox responded in kind on Tuesday, filing a complaint against the Yankees, claiming that the team uses a camera from its television network, YES, exclusively to steal signs during games.”

“Stealing signs is believed to be most effective when there is a runner on second base who can watch what hand signals the catcher is using to communicate with the pitcher and then relay to the batter any clues about what type of pitch may be coming. Such tactics are allowed as long as long as teams do not use any methods beyond their eyes. Binoculars and electronic devices are prohibited to communicate about signs,” Schmidt reports. “In recent years, as cameras have proliferated in major-league ballparks, teams have begun using the abundance of video to help them discern opponents’ signs. Some clubs have had clubhouse attendants quickly relay information to the dugout from personnel monitoring video. With that approach, the information has to be rushed to the dugout on foot so it can be passed to the runner on second base. The Red Sox seemed to shorten the communication chain — and more quickly get the information to their batters — by sending information electronically to people in the dugout. The Red Sox told league investigators that team personnel scanning instant-replay video were sending the pitch signs electronically to the trainers, who were then passing the information to the players.”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: Apple Watch makes everything more efficient, even the age-old art of stealing signs in baseball!

Apple Watch saves time. And, we don’t mean that in a small way, we mean that in a big way. 😉 (Thanks, Steve.) Small bits of time saved throughout each day equal big time savings each day. Time is our most precious commodity… That’s why we wear Apple Watches, they give us the gift of time. — MacDailyNews Take, July 21, 2015