McAdam: Allegations of sign-stealing detract from baseball's showcase events

HOUSTON — We interrupt this otherwise terrific baseball postseason to bring you another episode of "Spy vs. Spy.''

Never mind that the Red Sox and Houston Astros are locked in a terrific American League Championship Series, which features the two winningest teams in the game from 2018, with 211 regular seasons victories between them.

The series features two of the game's established starting pitchers, a handful of position players still in their mid-20s, two (soon to be three) different MVPs, two batting champions, three former Rookie of the Year winners and four former Cy Young Award winners.

But please, do tell us more about illegally positioned cameras, MLB investigations, and a litany of denials and counter-charges. We're all fascinated.

The operative phrase you hear from baseball people -- MLB officials, team executives, managers -- this October has nothing to do with the games, but instead, the gamesmanship that goes on: "paranoia.''

And whether Major League Baseball realizes it or not, it's detracting from what's taking place on the field.

To recap: On Saturday, during Game 1 of the ALCS, the Astros had an employee in the first base photo pit at Fenway, aiming a camera in an effort to determine, according to the Astros, whether the Red Sox were using a camera to steal the Astros' signs.

That's the story from Astros GM Jeff Luhnow, anyway.

"When we go into a new environment, we keep our eyes open ... look around and we try to make sure everything is the way it should be,'' said Luhnow, indirectly referencing Astros employee Kyle McLaughlin, who apparently performed the same reconnaissance mission against the Cleveland Indians during the ALDS. "Most of the time, when we see something suspicious, we look into it. (But) every once in a while, there have been multiple instances of us identifying suspicious activity.

"MLB prefers we don't look into it ourselves. If we see something suspicious, we relay it to them. And we're going to abide by that going forward. That's essentially what happened (in Boston) - We were playing defense; we were not playing offense.''

In phrasing it that way, of course, Luhnow was broadly hinting that the Astros suspected the Red Sox of being up to no good, and just monitoring them. You know -- just in case.

It should be noted that the Red Sox were disciplined last year for using their Apple Watches to relay signs from the clubhouse to the dugout to the field, so Luhnow's allegations can't be dismissed out of hand. The Red Sox do have a history.

But then, so do the Astros. At least two other American League teams -- the Oakland A's and Cleveland Indians -- reported the Astros to MLB this season.

Red Sox president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski took umbrage at Luhnow's intimation.

"I don't think that person was per se stealing signs,'' said Dombrowski of McLaughlin. "I will also tell you that person was told in the other series against Cleveland that he should not be in there and yet he went back in there. So to me, when they say they're doing it to protect themselves, they're also not listening to the authorities (from MLB). I, again, don't like the implication that we're going anything wrong.''

And on and on it went. The general managers of the two best teams in the game, holding dueling press conferences in their respective dugouts, hours before Game 4 of the ALCS.

Just what baseball needs.

At this point, even Major League Baseball seems to have had enough. MLB released a statement Wednesday afternoon that it had investigated all the allegations and concluded "that an Astros employee was monitoring the field to ensure that the opposing club was not violating any rules. All clubs remaining in the playoffs have been notified to refrain from these types of efforts and to direct complaints about any in-stadium rules violations to MLB staff for investigation and resolution. We consider the matter closed.''

Rough translation: Knock it off, both of you, and go to your rooms.

Good.

The last thing baseball should want is a foolish "he said, he said'' controversy, taking the focus off the on-field action.

Red Sox manager Alex Cora, who, it must be noted, was celebrated for his sign-stealing ability during his playing career, believes the obsession with sign-stealing results in players too concerned with the cat-and-mouse game and not on proper execution.

But there's a bigger problem here, Cora noted.

"I was thinking about it the whole night,'' said Cora, "and it's kind of ridiculous that with these two talented teams, the talk is about stealing signs and tipping pitches and all this stuff.''

"Stuff'' is a polite word for it.