Mark Whicker: Astros still have “edge” when it comes to winning

Houston Astros second baseman Jose Altuve is one of the few Astros remaining from the 2017 club that participated in an elaborating sign-stealing scandal.

October 7, 2023

By Mark Whicker

Canadian Baseball Network

It’s October, and Houston is playing, so guess what subject PBS decided to explore on Frontline the other night.

Frontline is the best investigative series on American television and has been for decades. Normally its correspondents are shining the light on Vladimir Putin, the Jan. 6 insurrection, the true origins of Covid-19, fundamental stuff like that.

But on Wednesday night, which was Day 2 of the MLB wild-card playoff round, Frontline retreated six years to the Astros’ electronic sign-stealing caper, which, in Los Angeles, is still considered to be the proximate cause of their 2017 World Series championship.

“The Astros’ Edge” is narrated and reported by Ben Reiter, who covered the Astros extensively for Sports Illustrated and wrote the famous cover story, in 2014, that predicted Houston would win that same 2017 Series. That was somewhat whimsical, since Houston was just coming off three consecutive 100-loss seasons. Reiter followed the Astros as they adopted the visions of general manager Jeff Luhnow, and in 2015 Houston got to the playoffs. Now the Astros have been in four of the past six World Series, six of the past six American League Championship Series, and won two titles.

Fortunately “The Astros’ Edge” does not sing the usual kneejerk chorus. It points out that the 2017 players are mostly gone, with the exception of Jose Altuve, Alex Bregman and Lance McCullers (Justin Verlander left and came back). What’s impressive is the presence of the Class of 2017 throughout the rest of baseball. Charlie Morton, Joe Musgrove, J.D. Davis, Yuli Gurriel and Teoscar Hernandez are still doing business.

The Astros, for those who have tried hard to forget, used their commitment to technology in evil ways. They set up a surveillance protocol that stole signs, with someone in the dugout banging a trashcan to pass the info to the hitter. A lifelong Astros fan, Tony Adams, was plagued by doubts about how the Astros won, so he took the deepest dive possible and brought forth the signals from the club broadcasts. Danny Farquhar of the White Sox spotted it during a game and backed off the mound. Funny, how the Dodgers, with a dugout full of coaches and an anteroom full of statisticians and the same familiarity with video, only figured this out after the fact.

Washington beat Houston in the 2019 Series. All of its four wins happened in Houston’s Minute Maid Park. The Nationals were suspicious of the Astros, so they changed their signs. Almost every club, almost every year, has changed its signs in almost every series, as long as signs have existed. The difference here is that Houston was using new-fangled spyware. But, as Sports Illustrated’s Tom Verduicci pointed out, it was almost inevitable that Houston would eventually use its toys in this manner, since it had so many and was so committed to them. Now baseball is contemplating ball-strike video challenges, and there are more laptops in major league dugouts than there are boxes of sunflower seeds. Why, there’s even a Pitch-com system to let the catchers give out the signs in clandestine fashion. Somehow Houston keeps winning. What was true 30 years ago still is. If someone has your signs, that’s on you.

Still, rules are rules, and after the 2019 off-season MLB listened to the whistle-blowing of former Astros pitcher Michael Fiers and eventually suspended Luhnow and manager A.J. Hinch.

Houston owner Jim Crane went MLB one better and fired them. Houston gave up first and second round picks in the 2020 and 2021 drafts. Carlos Beltran, one of the spymasters, was denied a chance to manage the Mets, and Alex Cora, another one, was given a year off as manager of the Red Sox.

So to say Houston dodged punishment altogether is counter-factual. Players weren’t punished, but players’ testimony is what fueled the probe in the first place. Without the informants, nothing happens.

For some reason Frontline brings us the opinions of former commissioner Fay Vincent, who left the job in 1992. Vincent suggests a “lifetime ban” of all the Astros, but then he likes lifetime bans. He upheld the ban on Pete Rose, who isn’t in the game even though Draft Kings is, and he permanently suspended ex-Dodger pitcher Steve Howe, although an arbitrator overturned that, after Vincent was fired.

But none of that has anything to do with these Astros, whose manager is the revered Dusty Baker, and whose roster is full of the handiwork of scouts in America and Latin America alike. The Astros have been masters of roster and salary management, and they have made all kinds of handy personnel discoveries, like centre fielder Chas McCormick from Millersville (Pa.) College.

The reason “The Astros’ Edge” works is that it traces the “scandal” back to its roots, to Luhnow’s background with Wall Street management companies, to his impersonal way of sending people packing, to the antagonistic culture that they built to conquer a previously collegial game. But they were also pioneers in using GPS technology, fixing flaws, adding velocity, rebuilding batting glitches, and showing players a path to more playing time and more money. They became what they had tried to become. Their downfall was the same as that of Barry Bonds. Neither really had to cheat.

As the organization veered out of control, dissidents within the group were discouraged. Perhaps the most poignant interview was with Anthony Padilla, the video technician who said he made $45,000. As long as he kept his mouth shut he would qualify for a cut of the World Series pie, worth $450,000.

Luhnow had given virtually no interviews until Reiter tracked him down in Spain, where he runs soccer franchises. He claimed he didn’t know about the scheme, but he had no misgivings about how the Astros had done their business. And in some ways it’s hard to begrudge him. The Astros were founded in 1962 and had been to only one World Series before 2017.

There was one thing that “The Astros’ Edge” left unsaid, although it was obvious. The thumping trashcan, whether it helped or not, did not go on the road. And the Astros won Games 2 and 7 of that Series in Dodger Stadium.

Now they’re back in the playoffs as of Saturday, having made off with another A.L. West championship. The edge might have changed, but the Astros haven’t.