Houston Astros sign stealing scandal
2010s scandal in Major League Baseball
Why this is trending
Interest in “Houston Astros sign stealing scandal” spiked on Wikipedia on 2026-07-20.
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Key Takeaways
- The Houston Astros sign stealing scandal in Major League Baseball (MLB) broke in November 2019.
- Other teams had long suspected the Astros of stealing signs, but there was no public reporting of it until November 2019, when reporters Ken Rosenthal and Evan Drellich at The Athletic published an article detailing the team's activities.
- Astros players or team staffers watching the live camera feed behind the dugout used various audio cues, such as banging on a trash can, to tell the batter what type of pitch was coming next.
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Source summary
WikipediaThe Houston Astros sign stealing scandal in Major League Baseball (MLB) broke in November 2019. Several members of the Houston Astros management were disciplined for failing to prevent Astros players from illegally using a video camera system to steal signs from opposing teams during games in 2017 and 2018.
Other teams had long suspected the Astros of stealing signs, but there was no public reporting of it until November 2019, when reporters Ken Rosenthal and Evan Drellich at The Athletic published an article detailing the team's activities. Mike Fiers, a pitcher who played for the Astros in 2017, told The Athletic that the organization used a video camera in the center field seats to observe the opposing catcher as he instructed the pitcher about the next pitch. Astros players or team staffers watching the live camera feed behind the dugout used various audio cues, such as banging on a trash can, to tell the batter what type of pitch was coming next. An MLB investigation confirmed in January 2020 that the Astros illegally used a camera system to steal signs during the 2017 regular season and postseason, during which they won the World Series, as well as in part of the 2018 season, in which they lost the American League Championship Series to the Boston Red Sox. MLB found no evidence of illicit sign stealing in the 2019 season, in which the Astros advanced to the World Series, but lost in seven games to the Washington Nationals.
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