Major League Baseball 2017!

I'm not a Yankee's fan but creative fans are often very funny.

 

When I was a kid, the church would get free tix to a Sox game for the altar boys (never had a single inappropriate experience, great people totally on the up and up). It was always against the Angels. I guess no one in Beantown wanted to see the Angels.

 

either that or the clergy has a special connection to the Angels

 

Haters of the NYY have a website, you can shop there!

http://yankeeshater.com/index.html

 

It never ends in Boston.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/05/sports/baseball/boston-red-sox-stealing-signs-yankees.html

 

Classics I've seen:

* The Cub fan who whipped up a sign as the first pitch of the year was being thrown at
Wrigley Field in 1982: WAIT TILL NEXT YEAR.

* The same fan at season's end: THIS IS NEXT YEAR!

* The Yankee fan in the horrible 1980s of George Steinbrenner's act who won the annual
Banner Day competition by dressing like a monk and carrying a scepter from which hung
a sign: FORGIVE HIM, FATHER, FOR HE KNOWS NOT WHAT HE DOES.

* Karl Erhardt, the once-fabled sign man of Shea Stadium, the day after Oakland owner
Charlie Finley tried purging hapless Mike Andrews over a couple of World Series errors,
when the first Athletic committed a miscue on the field: YOU'RE FIRED!

* The Met fans in the Polo Grounds in 1962, for the Dodgers' first visit to New York
since leaving Brooklyn, unfurling in perfect synchronising window shades printed
to read:

O ' M A L L E Y
G O H O M E!

 

I wrote this about it on my baseball blog:

Applegate

 

I always find it funny when someone says cheating in baseball, not a big deal. Then they go on to talk about historic cheating events.

 

I didn't exactly say it wasn't a big deal, but talking about the ancient Phillies and Giants
for-their-time high tech scams was a bid to put the Red Sox's Applegate into historic
perspective. Sign stealing is as old as the game and no one considers it cheating in
and of itself, but doing it with electrical or electronic devices is several bridges too
far.

 

I feel that way anytime the Red Sox play the Yankees.

 

Wonder why all Boston area teams are cheaters?

 

Proximity to Harvard.

 

The best part is they didn't even deny it.

 

Too far? I'd say it's the natural progression of things. Technology happens in everything. Many teams have probably been doing it. It wouldn't surprise me to find that's true. Does it make it right? No, not really, but stealing signs are a part of the game, and technology is a part of everything. The Sox were just stupid enough to get caught at it. There are no rules pertaining to this, as stealing signs isn't illegal. A slap on the wrist is in order I suppose.

 

At least they didn't film practices, take air out of balls, or steal playbooks. They could learn a little more from Billy B.

 

Everyone could. Especially about winning.

 

I just discovered there is an MLB commissioner's directive, dating back to 2001, that bans electronic devices
in dugouts. The Red Sox are liable to get more than a slap on the wrist.

 

They couldn't deny it. The Yankees actually caught the Red Sox assistant trainer in question
on video looking at his Apple Watch and then relaying information to Red Sox players.

Now for the fun part: the Apple Watch sign stealing didn't exactly do the Red Sox any
favours against the Yankees in the games in question: since the Yankees thought
the Red Sox were doing it with men on second, looking to improve their hitting
with runners on that base, in one August series the Red Sox went 5-for-23 with men
on second; in another, 9-for-24; in a third, 0-for-22. It almost begs the question of
why the Yankees would complain since it wasn't exactly damaging them. And Yankee
manager Joe Girardi says they assume that just about everyone is doing it.

 

That's true. I forgot about that as well. I don't know how much that's enforced, but it just makes the coaches and those involved look even dumber. I've no love for this Sox group of coaches and trainers. I wouldn't mind seeing them all go.

 

Agreed. This has got to be the worst first place team I've ever seen, and I can't help but think that the manager and coaching staff have a great deal to do with that. How many last place finishes and end of year collapses have we seen over the past several years? Why can't we be lucky enough to find a good manager like Torey Lavullo?