Rivalry Gets Hotter

Its one of the greatest rivalry's in all of professional sports. When somebody mentions the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox, you get thoughts of past games. Fights, walk off home runs, all of that. Now it has taken on a whole different level. For decades, spying on another team has been as much a part of baseball’s gamesmanship as brushback pitches and hard slides. The Boston Red Sox have apparently added a modern, and very different twist to the tactic. They used an Apple Watch to gain an advantage against the Yankees and other teams.

According to a story in the New York Times: 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. The trainer then relayed a message to other players in the dugout, who, in turn, would signal teammates on the field about the type of pitch that was about to be thrown, according to the people familiar with the case. The Red Sox responded in kind on Tuesday, filing a complaint against the Yankees claiming that the team uses a camera from its YES television network exclusively to steal signs during games, an assertion the Yankees denied (NY Times). Major League Baseball does not have a policy against sign stealing, per se, Manfred said. The issue is the use of an electronic device in the dugout, which is against league rules.

This isn't the first incident in baseball we have had of such type of incidents going on. In baseball, the most infamous incident involving sign stealing played out in 1951, when the New York Giants overcame a 13 ½-game deficit over the final two months of the season to catch the Brooklyn Dodgers. The Giants went on to beat the Dodgers in a playoff for the pennant. This hit the New York area once a again almost twenty years ago. In 1997, teams accused the Mets of planting small cameras near home plate in Shea Stadium to steal signals. The Mets denied that they had used the cameras to try to do so, and the league did not take any action. More recently, the Philadelphia Phillies faced sign-stealing accusations in 2011. Several teams logged complaints with the commissioner’s office that the team used binoculars and other unauthorized methods to steal signs. Major League Baseball never imposed sanctions on the Phillies (NY Times).

So far as I can tell, no punishment has ever been handed out by Major League Baseball, so if anything comes down, it won't be for stealing signs. That's something that's been a part of Baseball for a long time now. If anything comes down from this, it would be the use of the Apple Watch in the dugout. The only reason that the watch was used is because of the way Fenway Park is constructed. It is the oldest park in the Majors, having been constructed in 1912, so there's no video room close to the dugout. Use of an apple watch maybe the closest thing to having a video room near the dugout. What would make sense, if your stupid enough to use this method, is have somebody sitting in the hallway getting the info, then relay it into the dugout and out onto the field. Come up with a more clever way of trying to get away with stuff like this if your dumb enough to do it.

And if there wasn't enough crazy stuff happening between the Yankees and Red Sox, this only adds to the insane stories. What made this even better, was that the meeting between the two teams on Sunday night at Yankee Stadium, was the last meeting between the teams this season, at least during the regular season. Now just picture what could happen between these two teams if they meet in the playoffs. There could still be hangover from this. The ramifications could still be felt from this depending on what MLB decides to rule. I've heard anything from a major fine or getting stripped of a win. So who knows what's going to happen.

All I do know is this, its making things way more interesting between the Yankees and Red Sox!