How the Red Sox Used Tech, Step by Step, to Steal Signs From the Yankees

The New York Times has a good illustration explaining how the scheme worked. It’s not about stealing every signal or signaling every pitch to every batter. It was about (1) decoding the Yankees’ signs; (2) relaying the decoded signs to the dugout via messages sent to trainers wearing Apple Watches; and (3) telling the players what the signs are, so that they could decode them while they were on second base.

The Apple Watch only factored into step 2, but that matters because electronic communication devices are strictly prohibited from the dugout. It’s not so much that the Red Sox gained a significant advantage through this scheme, but that they so knowingly and blatantly violated a very simple hard-and-fast rule.

It’s like getting caught using a calculator on a no-calculator math test. It doesn’t matter if you only used it on a small fraction of the questions — it’s a clear violation of the rules.

★ Wednesday, 6 September 2017