The Houston Astros are an American professional baseball team based in Houston, Texas. The Astros compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West division, having moved to the division in 2013 after spending their first 51 seasons in the National League (NL). In baseball, there are two types of sign stealing. The legal one is the runner is usually on 2nd base and he looks for signs that the pitcher will be throwing and try’s to gesture to the batter so he knows. The illegal way of doing it involves, mechanical or electronic technology; the rules regarding this have become more strict over time and continue to evolve. Recently people have learned, that back in 2017’s world series. The Astros were proven to have used illegal sign stealing in their games, in August 2017. As Houston prepared for the playoffs, a front office executive expressed the organization’s desire to steal signs in an email obtained by The Athletic. In the email, the executive asked Astros scouts to try to steal signs from the stands and suggested cameras could be used to do it.

“One thing in specific we are looking for is picking up signs coming out of the dugout,” the sender wrote in the 2017 email, which was provided to The Athletic. “What we are looking for is how much we can see, how we would log things, if we need cameras/binoculars, etc. So go to game, see what you can [or can’t] do and report back your findings.”

As noted in the introduction, the Astros used a camera positioned in center field to steal signs during games. Team personnel would watch the feed in a hallway between the clubhouse and dugout, and would relay what was coming to the hitter by hitting a garbage can. Also former Astros pitcher Mike Fiers has gone on the record saying the club illegally stole signs using the center-field camera. After everyone found out about the cheating scandal, everyone involved  got the punishment they deserved. What we can take away from this is that cheating never stops. It frustrates me because I know how much effort players put into the sport and for other teams to just cheat their way to play offs, its ridiculous. In conclusion, cheating is always happening in a variety of ways,  famous or not.

I’m sure everyone has cheated on tests, games, or even simply copied someone’s work. People cheat on tests, because of hormones. They would only cheat if the cost-benefits is greater than the outcome of getting caught. About 58% cheat on tests, 64% committed plagiarism, and 95% any form of cheating. How do people cheat? Many people cheat by writing on their hand, looking at someone else’s paper, they sometimes write on their notebook and try to cover it up. 35% of teens cheat with their smart phone on tests. Teenagers cheat because they want to pass their classes.

Overall, in the end, is cheating really worth it? Sure, it is beneficial if you get away with it but if you get caught it is not worth it. It just puts you in a deeper hole then you were already in before.

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