Since the turn of the century there have been few things more synonymous with the city of Boston than winning, In the past 15 years, the Patriots have won five Super Bowls, The Red Sox have won three World Series, and the Celtics and Bruins have won a championship apiece. The other thing that Boston is known for since the turn of the century: sports cheating scandals. As Boston professional sports teams have been laden with scandals like Spygate, Deflategate, and the Manny Ramirez PED scandal.
Now the city of Boston has another cheating scandal on their hands. According to the New York Times, the New York Yankees have accused the Boston Red Sox of stealing signs by using an Apple Watch. Yankees General Manager Brian Cashman brought his findings to the MLB offices two weeks ago, hoping to resolve the situation.
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.
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.
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.
It’s worth noting that stealing signs in baseball is a tradition that stands as long as baseball itself, so this may end up being much ado about nothing. That being said, the fact that there’s another sports scandal coming out of the city of Boston is exhausting. But at the same time, kudos to the Red Sox for being one of the first to find a practical use for an Apple Watch.
