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Cheated: The Inside Story of the Astros Scandal and a Colorful History of Sign Stealing
“A baseball book that reads like a spy novel—a story about cheaters and the cheated that has the power to forever change how we feel about the game.” —Brian Williams, MSNBC anchor and host of The 11th Hour
The definitive insider story of one of the biggest cheating scandals to ever rock Major League Baseball, bringing down high-profile coaches and players, and exposing a long-rumored "sign-stealing" dark side of baseball
The ensuing scandal rivaled that of the 1919 "Black Sox" and the more recent steroid era, and became one of the most significant that the game had ever seen. The fallout ensnared many other teams, either as victims, alleged cheaters or both. The Los Angeles Dodgers felt robbed of a World Series title, and fended off accusations about their organization. Same for the New York Yankees. The Boston Red Sox were soon under investigation themselves. The New York Mets lost a promising manager before he ever managed a game.
Andy Martino, an award-winning journalist who has covered Major League Baseball for more than a decade, has broken numerous stories about the Astros and sign-stealing in baseball. In Cheated , Martino takes readers behind the scenes and into the heart of the events that shocked the baseball world. With inside access to the people directly involved, Martino breaks down not only exactly what happened and when, but reveals the fascinating explanations of why it all came about. The nuance and detail of the scandal reads like a true sports whodunnit. How did otherwise good people like Astros' manager A.J. Hinch, bench coach Alex Cora and veteran leader Carlos Beltran find themselves on the wrong side of clear ethical lines? And did they even know when those lines had been crossed? Cheated is an explosive, electrifying read.
The definitive insider story of one of the biggest cheating scandals to ever rock Major League Baseball, bringing down high-profile coaches and players, and exposing a long-rumored "sign-stealing" dark side of baseball
The ensuing scandal rivaled that of the 1919 "Black Sox" and the more recent steroid era, and became one of the most significant that the game had ever seen. The fallout ensnared many other teams, either as victims, alleged cheaters or both. The Los Angeles Dodgers felt robbed of a World Series title, and fended off accusations about their organization. Same for the New York Yankees. The Boston Red Sox were soon under investigation themselves. The New York Mets lost a promising manager before he ever managed a game.
Andy Martino, an award-winning journalist who has covered Major League Baseball for more than a decade, has broken numerous stories about the Astros and sign-stealing in baseball. In Cheated , Martino takes readers behind the scenes and into the heart of the events that shocked the baseball world. With inside access to the people directly involved, Martino breaks down not only exactly what happened and when, but reveals the fascinating explanations of why it all came about. The nuance and detail of the scandal reads like a true sports whodunnit. How did otherwise good people like Astros' manager A.J. Hinch, bench coach Alex Cora and veteran leader Carlos Beltran find themselves on the wrong side of clear ethical lines? And did they even know when those lines had been crossed? Cheated is an explosive, electrifying read.
288 pages, Hardcover
First published June 1, 2021
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878 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 153 reviews
May 15, 2021
Many are aware of the Astros cheating scandal from 2017, the year they were crowned world series champions. For those who aren't aware, the Houston Astros were found to be using technological instruments to get an advantage on their opponents by using video and communication technology to steal signs from the catcher as he's relaying them to his pitcher, which unlike using your eyes, is against the rules of Major League Baseball.
Cheated chronicles the scandal in 2017 as well as documents the history of sign stealing, both legal and illegal, dating as far back as the 1900 season and the ways in which it was done.
The majority of the book, however, details the investigations into the Astros, the Red Sox, and Yankees, who were each accused of illegal sign stealing in 2017-2019. Martino demonstrates how MLB Commissioner Bud Selig didn't put much effort in to investigating the sign stealing complaints. Martino shows how Selig, whose own reputation had been tarnished by his inaction during the steroids era, was too busy trying to redeem his own reputation by completely ruining the reputation of known performance enhancing drug user Alex Rodriguez. Current commissioner Rob Manfred also angered players and fans by not punishing players for their respective roles in the controversy and cheapening the importance of winning the world series by referring to the trophy as "a piece of metal."
Martino has clearly done his research here as this is very well detailed. He writes in a way that isn't an information dump and makes his main subjects human, even the villains. It also serves as a cautionary tale of what can happen when a team decides to place such an emphasis on winning that they are willing to break the rules to do so. If you're a baseball fan, I would highly recommend reading this fascinating book.
My appreciation to Doubleday, Andy Martino, and NetGalley for gifting me a digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
Cheated chronicles the scandal in 2017 as well as documents the history of sign stealing, both legal and illegal, dating as far back as the 1900 season and the ways in which it was done.
The majority of the book, however, details the investigations into the Astros, the Red Sox, and Yankees, who were each accused of illegal sign stealing in 2017-2019. Martino demonstrates how MLB Commissioner Bud Selig didn't put much effort in to investigating the sign stealing complaints. Martino shows how Selig, whose own reputation had been tarnished by his inaction during the steroids era, was too busy trying to redeem his own reputation by completely ruining the reputation of known performance enhancing drug user Alex Rodriguez. Current commissioner Rob Manfred also angered players and fans by not punishing players for their respective roles in the controversy and cheapening the importance of winning the world series by referring to the trophy as "a piece of metal."
Martino has clearly done his research here as this is very well detailed. He writes in a way that isn't an information dump and makes his main subjects human, even the villains. It also serves as a cautionary tale of what can happen when a team decides to place such an emphasis on winning that they are willing to break the rules to do so. If you're a baseball fan, I would highly recommend reading this fascinating book.
My appreciation to Doubleday, Andy Martino, and NetGalley for gifting me a digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
June 26, 2022
My husband is one of the biggest New York Yankees fans there is, so much so that he says the Yankees practice affirmative action when other teams win the World Series. That may be true in years when the Yankees have no chance but what of the years 2017 and 2019 when many believed that the Yankees had what it took to at least earn a spot in the fall classic? Those two years the Yankees ran into the Houston Astros in the American League championship series. Both times the Astros came away winners, and later it was discovered that the Astros cheated their way there. Andy Martino has written a biased account of this cheating scandal that left me detesting the Astros all over again.
In the early part of this decade both my beloved Cubs and the Astros thought they found a winning formula: lose enough games at the major league level, accumulate a few years worth of top draft picks, start winning, bring in a few key veteran free agents to put the team over the top. This tanking translated to World Series wins for the Cubs in 2016 and the Astros in 2017; of course, everything has to go right like a 17 minute rain delay in the 10th inning of game or banging on garbage cans from your dugout to alert your teammates to the next pitch. The 2017 Astros were a talented team that much was clear from the fan’s eye test. The team also took advantage of 21st century technology available to them to steal signs from every opposing team. When the league commissioner banned use of real time computer monitoring, the Astros savvy code breakers studied pitchers a day or so in advance and banged on a garbage can to alert batters of incoming pitches. The method worked to perfection until it became an open secret that the Astros were stealing all teams’ signs. In other words, they were winning games by a combination of skills and cheating.
Sign stealing has sadly long been a part of baseball. The most documented case was the 1951 New York Giants who used an electronic buzzer from the scoreboard to alert batters of pitches. Author Martino discusses that case here and how it altered the trajectory of baseball history for the Giants and their rival Brooklyn Dodgers. Before technology became widespread baseball with high acumen would attempt to steal catchers’ signs from second base. Catchers and pitchers would have to change signs to fool the other team. Over the course of a season the best of the best would crack the code, and this is prevalent on every team. Without a video feed, no sign stealing had ever been proven and most teams relied on old school baseball codes that sign stealing is part of the game. Hence the need to switch signs two or more times to try to cross up savvy opponents. Although bordering on illegal until caught, sign stealing remained part of the status quo until technology overtook in game baseball about a decade ago.
Baseball has long lagged behind other professional sports in regards to technology. Football has been using instant replay for decades. In 2011 an umpire missed a call on a would be perfect game prompting baseball to spin its wheels and allow for managers challenges on dubious calls. Video monitors were installed near dugouts meant for the purpose of reviewing close plays. The Astros took the monitor to a new level- to steal signs. Reading how the Astros stole signs became intriguing because five years later the scandal had been discovered and the Astros punished, although not enough in the eyes of many, for their actions. Yet in 2017 the cheating scandal uncovering was more than two years away. Many believed that the 2017 Yankees were too young and that the World Series against the Dodgers was an instant classic. The Yankees and Dodgers did not cheat or at least were never discovered to have cheated. Both teams believe they had a title stolen from them. There is still much love lost between both teams and the Astros today.
This weekend the Astros happen to be playing the Yankees in New York. Fans don’t forget and show up with posters of garbage cans and hand buzzers. They reserve their worst cheers for the Astros who rightfully deserve it. I’ve always said in regards to PED usage- if you use, you lose. Stealing should be viewed as no different and the Astros players should be frozen out of the hall of fame when their time comes. With all the technology available I’m sure their will be another scandal sometime in the near future. Players will not forget the Astros cheating their way to a championship so that day might be later than sooner. In the meantime, pitchers and catchers have upgraded to an electronic means of pitch calling so that the opposing team cannot see the pitch signs. It’s only a matter of time before the system is hacked and those signs will be stolen as well.
⚾️ 4 stars 🚫
In the early part of this decade both my beloved Cubs and the Astros thought they found a winning formula: lose enough games at the major league level, accumulate a few years worth of top draft picks, start winning, bring in a few key veteran free agents to put the team over the top. This tanking translated to World Series wins for the Cubs in 2016 and the Astros in 2017; of course, everything has to go right like a 17 minute rain delay in the 10th inning of game or banging on garbage cans from your dugout to alert your teammates to the next pitch. The 2017 Astros were a talented team that much was clear from the fan’s eye test. The team also took advantage of 21st century technology available to them to steal signs from every opposing team. When the league commissioner banned use of real time computer monitoring, the Astros savvy code breakers studied pitchers a day or so in advance and banged on a garbage can to alert batters of incoming pitches. The method worked to perfection until it became an open secret that the Astros were stealing all teams’ signs. In other words, they were winning games by a combination of skills and cheating.
Sign stealing has sadly long been a part of baseball. The most documented case was the 1951 New York Giants who used an electronic buzzer from the scoreboard to alert batters of pitches. Author Martino discusses that case here and how it altered the trajectory of baseball history for the Giants and their rival Brooklyn Dodgers. Before technology became widespread baseball with high acumen would attempt to steal catchers’ signs from second base. Catchers and pitchers would have to change signs to fool the other team. Over the course of a season the best of the best would crack the code, and this is prevalent on every team. Without a video feed, no sign stealing had ever been proven and most teams relied on old school baseball codes that sign stealing is part of the game. Hence the need to switch signs two or more times to try to cross up savvy opponents. Although bordering on illegal until caught, sign stealing remained part of the status quo until technology overtook in game baseball about a decade ago.
Baseball has long lagged behind other professional sports in regards to technology. Football has been using instant replay for decades. In 2011 an umpire missed a call on a would be perfect game prompting baseball to spin its wheels and allow for managers challenges on dubious calls. Video monitors were installed near dugouts meant for the purpose of reviewing close plays. The Astros took the monitor to a new level- to steal signs. Reading how the Astros stole signs became intriguing because five years later the scandal had been discovered and the Astros punished, although not enough in the eyes of many, for their actions. Yet in 2017 the cheating scandal uncovering was more than two years away. Many believed that the 2017 Yankees were too young and that the World Series against the Dodgers was an instant classic. The Yankees and Dodgers did not cheat or at least were never discovered to have cheated. Both teams believe they had a title stolen from them. There is still much love lost between both teams and the Astros today.
This weekend the Astros happen to be playing the Yankees in New York. Fans don’t forget and show up with posters of garbage cans and hand buzzers. They reserve their worst cheers for the Astros who rightfully deserve it. I’ve always said in regards to PED usage- if you use, you lose. Stealing should be viewed as no different and the Astros players should be frozen out of the hall of fame when their time comes. With all the technology available I’m sure their will be another scandal sometime in the near future. Players will not forget the Astros cheating their way to a championship so that day might be later than sooner. In the meantime, pitchers and catchers have upgraded to an electronic means of pitch calling so that the opposing team cannot see the pitch signs. It’s only a matter of time before the system is hacked and those signs will be stolen as well.
⚾️ 4 stars 🚫
March 22, 2021
No matter how closely one follows Major League Baseball, one has heard about the recent cheating scandal involving the Houston Astros and their use of technology in order to steal signs from the catcher to the pitcher. The cheating then went to various methods to communicate the pitch that would be coming to the batter, the most publicized of which was banging a trash can to tell the batter about the next pitch. This book about the scandal and also the history of sign-stealing in baseball is an excellent look into the characters and multiple angle of this story.
While the plot of the book is about the Astros and sign-stealing, there is some interesting side stories. One I found particularly interesting was about the commissioner's office and why they – both Bud Selig and Rob Manfred – weren't so invested into investigating this heavily until well after the Astros used this scheme to win a World Series in 2017 and two American League pennants in three years. That was, in author Andy Martino's words, because Selig was more interested in bringing down Alex Rodriguez to clean up Selig's unkind legacy on steroids and then when Manfred took over, he put out rules to let teams know that violations of the rules to use electronic method to steal signals would not be tolerated. He believed that self-policing with these rules would work – as we saw, it did not.
The book also nicely covers older cheating events, from the early 20th century to the famous 1951 playoff game between the New York Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers. He makes a great comparison of Ralph Branca, the Dodgers pitcher whose pitch to Bobby Thompson was signaled before Thompson hit the legendary homer, to players who also felt cheated out of important wins like Clayton Kershaw and Aaron Judge. Passages like this make the book very enjoyable for not only the Astros sign-stealing.
But, as one might expect from the title, Martino does his best work when writing about the main people in the cheating scandal – Astros manager A.J. Hinch, coach Alex Cora (who later managed the Boston Red Sox to the World Series title in 2018 but was later fired from that team for his role in the Astros scandal) and Carlos Beltran, who was a player in the last year of his 20 year career with the 2017 Astros (who, like Cora, also lost a managerial job over the scandal when he was fired by the New York Mets just months after being hired). Their roles were just a part of the story that brings out the investigative side of Martino extremely well. Not only does he investigate and report on several different aspects of the scandal, he writes about this much like an espionage novel or an episode of investigative television shows with all the twists and turns, various accusations thrown out by so many people and eventually the illegal activity being exposed and those punished will get their just deserts. Or, in the case of that last statement, the punishment merited to be correct by the commissioner as many in the game felt that the Astros deserved more. Even this aspect is covered in the book in the epilogue with a segment on the harsh treatment the Astros received during spring training in 2020.
After reading several of the books that came out soon after the 2017 Astros won the World Series praising how they made tearing a team down to the core and rebuilding with analytics the model of how to win a championship, this is a completely different approach to that Houston championship and one that should be read by any baseball fan.
I wish to thank Doubleday for providing a copy of the book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
https://sportsbookguy.blogspot.com/20...
While the plot of the book is about the Astros and sign-stealing, there is some interesting side stories. One I found particularly interesting was about the commissioner's office and why they – both Bud Selig and Rob Manfred – weren't so invested into investigating this heavily until well after the Astros used this scheme to win a World Series in 2017 and two American League pennants in three years. That was, in author Andy Martino's words, because Selig was more interested in bringing down Alex Rodriguez to clean up Selig's unkind legacy on steroids and then when Manfred took over, he put out rules to let teams know that violations of the rules to use electronic method to steal signals would not be tolerated. He believed that self-policing with these rules would work – as we saw, it did not.
The book also nicely covers older cheating events, from the early 20th century to the famous 1951 playoff game between the New York Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers. He makes a great comparison of Ralph Branca, the Dodgers pitcher whose pitch to Bobby Thompson was signaled before Thompson hit the legendary homer, to players who also felt cheated out of important wins like Clayton Kershaw and Aaron Judge. Passages like this make the book very enjoyable for not only the Astros sign-stealing.
But, as one might expect from the title, Martino does his best work when writing about the main people in the cheating scandal – Astros manager A.J. Hinch, coach Alex Cora (who later managed the Boston Red Sox to the World Series title in 2018 but was later fired from that team for his role in the Astros scandal) and Carlos Beltran, who was a player in the last year of his 20 year career with the 2017 Astros (who, like Cora, also lost a managerial job over the scandal when he was fired by the New York Mets just months after being hired). Their roles were just a part of the story that brings out the investigative side of Martino extremely well. Not only does he investigate and report on several different aspects of the scandal, he writes about this much like an espionage novel or an episode of investigative television shows with all the twists and turns, various accusations thrown out by so many people and eventually the illegal activity being exposed and those punished will get their just deserts. Or, in the case of that last statement, the punishment merited to be correct by the commissioner as many in the game felt that the Astros deserved more. Even this aspect is covered in the book in the epilogue with a segment on the harsh treatment the Astros received during spring training in 2020.
After reading several of the books that came out soon after the 2017 Astros won the World Series praising how they made tearing a team down to the core and rebuilding with analytics the model of how to win a championship, this is a completely different approach to that Houston championship and one that should be read by any baseball fan.
I wish to thank Doubleday for providing a copy of the book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
https://sportsbookguy.blogspot.com/20...
December 8, 2021
There were rumors that the Dodgers were robbed of their 2017 World Series, that the Clayton Kershaw and Yu Darvish humiliations were results of being bushwhacked by electronic cheating. My Dodgers lost that series and I resisted looking for excuses to deny my team lost to a better opponent. In the football world, as a Patriots fan I constantly heard whining about New England only winning by playing dirty football and reacted with "yeah, yeah." With this in mind I was skeptical and hesitant to jump on the fantastical Astro-cheater bandwagon.
Those S.O.B.'s did it! In Andy Martino's "Cheated" the entire case is fleshed out. We get the whole history of sign stealing from the 1890's until now. This scandal played out daily in the newspapers and radio talk shows but "Cheated" is not just a stretched-out magazine article, it breaks down how baseball got here and what has and has not been proven. It does not toss up one dimensional evil villains, it shows men who start off only trying to get a competitive edge, progress believing "everybody else is doing it," and finding themselves trying to defend themselves against a sports world booing them mercilessly. Whatever the initial intentions, games and championships were compromised and opponents suffered.
This is definitely a must-read for any baseball fan outside the Houston area. Cue James Earl Jones sermonizing on the innocence of baseball. Dissolve that picture and the screen is broken down into 1000 second per frame codebreaker technology... where, as Andy Martino says, the computer monitor tells us we can no longer trust what we are watching.
I thank Doubleday Books, NetGalley, and Andy Martino for an Advance Reader Copy in exchange for an honest review. #Cheated #NetGalley #Doubleday
Those S.O.B.'s did it! In Andy Martino's "Cheated" the entire case is fleshed out. We get the whole history of sign stealing from the 1890's until now. This scandal played out daily in the newspapers and radio talk shows but "Cheated" is not just a stretched-out magazine article, it breaks down how baseball got here and what has and has not been proven. It does not toss up one dimensional evil villains, it shows men who start off only trying to get a competitive edge, progress believing "everybody else is doing it," and finding themselves trying to defend themselves against a sports world booing them mercilessly. Whatever the initial intentions, games and championships were compromised and opponents suffered.
This is definitely a must-read for any baseball fan outside the Houston area. Cue James Earl Jones sermonizing on the innocence of baseball. Dissolve that picture and the screen is broken down into 1000 second per frame codebreaker technology... where, as Andy Martino says, the computer monitor tells us we can no longer trust what we are watching.
I thank Doubleday Books, NetGalley, and Andy Martino for an Advance Reader Copy in exchange for an honest review. #Cheated #NetGalley #Doubleday
Read
October 25, 2021ample material to sustain my grudge over 2017
July 14, 2021
I reccomend this to any fan of baseball as it unravels the infamous story of The Astros Sign Stealing Scandal like a cleverly paced true crime thriller topped off with just enough baseball history to create nostalgia without weighing it down. Martino covers a robust amount of material in a trim, succinct and well paced effort. I definitely felt like all the holes were filled in, burning questions answered, cravings satiated. It details the origins and long history of sign stealing, focusing on key moments in history such as "The shot heard 'round the world" and bridges the gap to the modern technology propelling today's game, sometimes right off the edge of a cliff.
I suspect this will be the first of many exposes about one of baseball's darkest hours.
I suspect this will be the first of many exposes about one of baseball's darkest hours.
December 10, 2024
This was a really interesting and engaging read, especially as a massive baseball fan. I think Martino did a good job of not apologizing for the Astros or making their team out to be sympathetic, because it was the biggest cheating scandal in baseball in a century. He does a good job outlining why it’s still lived this long in the minds of fans and players (especially of teams like the Yankees who couldn’t get past them in the playoffs because they actively cheated for three years).
I do think there’s also no way that anyone could convince me Jose Altuve wasn’t wearing a buzzer in the 2019 ALCS because his reaction after was suspicious as hell.
I do think there’s also no way that anyone could convince me Jose Altuve wasn’t wearing a buzzer in the 2019 ALCS because his reaction after was suspicious as hell.
January 14, 2022
In case you somehow missed it, the Houston Astros were found to be illegally stealing signs during the 2017 regular season and postseason, with evidence pointing to similar behavior in the 2018 and 2019 seasons as well. Not only did their cheating effect the outcome of the 2017 season, but also the careers of numerous other players and coaches. Some pitchers that seemingly performed poorly got sent down to the minors, others lost out on millions on new contracts, while others still were released completely and never pitched again.
Cheated by Andy Martino takes us deep inside the scandal that rocked the sports world. As a huge baseball fan, this book blew me away. The book begins with a look back at sign stealing, beginning when the game began in the late 1800s, and how it’s evolved as technology has evolved. We then learn about the early lives of key players in the scheme and how it all came together, followed of course by how it unfolded and the aftermath.
I already knew tons about the scandal, but this book went into a lot of the details that didn’t make the news. It definitely made me rethink my opinion on certain people involved and see the situation with more nuance. Easily one of my favorite books of the year, and an absolute must read for any baseball fan, or anyone who loves learning about scams and scandals!
Cheated by Andy Martino takes us deep inside the scandal that rocked the sports world. As a huge baseball fan, this book blew me away. The book begins with a look back at sign stealing, beginning when the game began in the late 1800s, and how it’s evolved as technology has evolved. We then learn about the early lives of key players in the scheme and how it all came together, followed of course by how it unfolded and the aftermath.
I already knew tons about the scandal, but this book went into a lot of the details that didn’t make the news. It definitely made me rethink my opinion on certain people involved and see the situation with more nuance. Easily one of my favorite books of the year, and an absolute must read for any baseball fan, or anyone who loves learning about scams and scandals!
April 6, 2021
I wonder if readers will feel the same way after reading Sinclair’s THE JUNGLE as I did reading final page of CHEATED
June 28, 2021
This began as a book chronicling the history of cheating in baseball, mentioning the 1951 Bobby Thomson home run aided by sign-stealing efforts and included earlier cases, including one from the turn of the century and a brief mention of the 1919 Chicago White Sox scandal.
It then evolved into the Houston Astros' Codebreaker saga. Andy Martino does a good job of setting the stage, complete with the hiring of manager A.J. Hinch and the acquisition of players who later were involved heavily in the cheating issue.
He does, as one reviewer mentioned on Goodreads, seem to write reverentially about the New York Yankees and that is a tad distracting. He also makes quick references to baseball occurrences that, unless you're a fan of baseball history, won't immediately get. He mentions Carlos Beltran's called strike three against the Cardinals' pitcher Adam Wainwright to end the 2006 National League Championship Series. He doesn't explain the context and I only got it because I remembered it. He also somehow has the Astros playing 170 games one season; he lists their record at 59-111. Maybe it's a typo only, but you have to question other research if something like that slips by.
We all heard of the cheating and the trash can banging that the Astros used to signal pitches, and I remembered when Jose Altruve didn't want his shirt taken off after hitting a game-winning home run in Game 6 of the 2017 World Series against the Dodgers. Was he wearing a buzzer? He said it was an unfinished tattoo. I thought Martino explained that episode well and brought all of it together.
Overall, I thought this was a great look at the accusations of the Astros cheating ways. Sure, all teams probably cheat some way with sign stealing. This book shows in depth how Houston did it and how the baseball commissioner Rob Manfred continued to prove he is inept in all things baseball.
It then evolved into the Houston Astros' Codebreaker saga. Andy Martino does a good job of setting the stage, complete with the hiring of manager A.J. Hinch and the acquisition of players who later were involved heavily in the cheating issue.
He does, as one reviewer mentioned on Goodreads, seem to write reverentially about the New York Yankees and that is a tad distracting. He also makes quick references to baseball occurrences that, unless you're a fan of baseball history, won't immediately get. He mentions Carlos Beltran's called strike three against the Cardinals' pitcher Adam Wainwright to end the 2006 National League Championship Series. He doesn't explain the context and I only got it because I remembered it. He also somehow has the Astros playing 170 games one season; he lists their record at 59-111. Maybe it's a typo only, but you have to question other research if something like that slips by.
We all heard of the cheating and the trash can banging that the Astros used to signal pitches, and I remembered when Jose Altruve didn't want his shirt taken off after hitting a game-winning home run in Game 6 of the 2017 World Series against the Dodgers. Was he wearing a buzzer? He said it was an unfinished tattoo. I thought Martino explained that episode well and brought all of it together.
Overall, I thought this was a great look at the accusations of the Astros cheating ways. Sure, all teams probably cheat some way with sign stealing. This book shows in depth how Houston did it and how the baseball commissioner Rob Manfred continued to prove he is inept in all things baseball.
December 9, 2023
A quite accurate title, this book covers both the Astros scandal (and related shenanigans involving crossover players and personnel with other teams) and also manages to delve deep into baseball lore for context. What results in a rambling baseball yarn (not a criticism – baseball tales should meander a bit through legend and history!) that makes parallels between the high-tech electronic cheating systems of the 1900 Phillies and the trash can-banging antics of the 2017 Astros.
The major characters involved with the Astros are treated thoroughly, with a humanizing understanding that makes the reader empathetic to the twists and turns that led to many of these individuals getting caught up in the nefarious proceedings. Certainly, one would be hard-pressed not to feel some compassion for A.J. Hinch, Alex Cora, and especially Carlos Beltrán (who seemed to be unfairly singled out in many media depictions). Perhaps the executives in question are not painted with as sympathetic a brush, though I wonder if their lack of a background in the sport makes them easier scapegoats than the baseball lifers. There is much, of course, that isn't definitively known of the inner workings of the scandal, so assigning guilt or innocence cannot be done with any certainly, and Martino does tread carefully here to show the defenses of each relevant party alongside accusations.
While this scandal certainly did rock the baseball world in unique ways, I wonder if it was treated somewhat hyperbolically as such a huge deal compared to the many previous incidents in baseball history. Though maybe it really is as big of a shock as the narrative suggests. Certainly, one unique aspect of this iteration of sign-stealing is that it seems to have hit a nerve with non-Astros players who were victimized, perhaps more so than previous improprieties. It seems that, among the playerbase, there was perhaps more of an outcry with the Astros than with the performing-enhancing drug situation of the early 21st century, or might this just be a reflection of more contemporary players more ready to voice opinions on social media?
The major characters involved with the Astros are treated thoroughly, with a humanizing understanding that makes the reader empathetic to the twists and turns that led to many of these individuals getting caught up in the nefarious proceedings. Certainly, one would be hard-pressed not to feel some compassion for A.J. Hinch, Alex Cora, and especially Carlos Beltrán (who seemed to be unfairly singled out in many media depictions). Perhaps the executives in question are not painted with as sympathetic a brush, though I wonder if their lack of a background in the sport makes them easier scapegoats than the baseball lifers. There is much, of course, that isn't definitively known of the inner workings of the scandal, so assigning guilt or innocence cannot be done with any certainly, and Martino does tread carefully here to show the defenses of each relevant party alongside accusations.
While this scandal certainly did rock the baseball world in unique ways, I wonder if it was treated somewhat hyperbolically as such a huge deal compared to the many previous incidents in baseball history. Though maybe it really is as big of a shock as the narrative suggests. Certainly, one unique aspect of this iteration of sign-stealing is that it seems to have hit a nerve with non-Astros players who were victimized, perhaps more so than previous improprieties. It seems that, among the playerbase, there was perhaps more of an outcry with the Astros than with the performing-enhancing drug situation of the early 21st century, or might this just be a reflection of more contemporary players more ready to voice opinions on social media?
August 19, 2021
I don’t watch baseball anymore because the game has allowed social justice warriors to take it over and that doesn’t sit well with me. But I did watch as this scandal was going on and in fact I was a Yankee fan foremost, but secondly a dodger fan so I had a vested interest as the Yankees and dodgers were most effected by this cheating scandal.
I felt this author really explained the culture of not only the Astros entire organization but also gave some subtle insight (maybe not intentionally, but it did help me understand) as to how baseball has got to the “woke” place it is in right now. And that is this: it has allowed analytically pussy types to take over the front offices, and of course all that shit trickles down. Anyway, I’m not gonna get into that because the absolute only way MLB will ever get me to watch them again is if they make a statement apologizing for disrespecting their conservative fans by allowing players to “protest” our national anthem and shitting on not only our country; but our military, police and conservatives as well. Since that won’t happen, baseball is done for me.
This is a good book tho, and I will remember the sport I loved in the past. The future I feel they will have problems which will only be solved if they go back to old school game playing and ditch the stupid political statements, asinine technological “advances” and just play ball.
I felt this author really explained the culture of not only the Astros entire organization but also gave some subtle insight (maybe not intentionally, but it did help me understand) as to how baseball has got to the “woke” place it is in right now. And that is this: it has allowed analytically pussy types to take over the front offices, and of course all that shit trickles down. Anyway, I’m not gonna get into that because the absolute only way MLB will ever get me to watch them again is if they make a statement apologizing for disrespecting their conservative fans by allowing players to “protest” our national anthem and shitting on not only our country; but our military, police and conservatives as well. Since that won’t happen, baseball is done for me.
This is a good book tho, and I will remember the sport I loved in the past. The future I feel they will have problems which will only be solved if they go back to old school game playing and ditch the stupid political statements, asinine technological “advances” and just play ball.
Read
November 15, 2022New York-based sportswriter Andy Martino delivers a thorough history of cheating in baseball with a particular focus on sign-stealing. Martino's research on cheating in earlier eras provides important context for his extensive coverage of the cheating scandal involving the Houston Astros in 2017 and 2018. Many of the players, managers, and executives portrayed in Cheated are still active in the major leagues, and of course, the Houston Astros just won the 2022 World Series, so it's interesting to see how threads of this story are still playing out.
March 23, 2023
I read a lot of reviews and comments saying that Astros fans wouldn’t enjoy this book, but I think that most Astros fans would. The insight and extra details really brought to life the scandal all over again, which, while a bit painful, was a little like therapy for my baseball soul. We have a tendency to avoid things that are unpleasant to our psyche, but this book goes a long way in helping me understand how the team i rooted for since I could walk could stoop to such lows. I believe any baseball fan will find this an enjoyable read.
April 3, 2022
A thorough, well researched exposé of the Houston Astros cheating scandal. Martino begins with the history of cheating in baseball, covers what’s historically considered legal and illegal cheating, and takes us through the many dimensions of the Astros scandal and the fallout from their getting caught. I recommend to all baseball fans.
August 9, 2023
Such a great in depth look at the 2017 Astros cheating scandal. The commissioner completely let them off easily by not vacating the title. One of the best baseball books I’ve ever read, and it reads like a mystery novel.
January 26, 2022
I now have a better understanding of the events that lead up to and encouraged cheating in baseball. But still, fuck the Astros.
October 10, 2022
Well written. I watch baseball differently now.
January 2, 2024
Amazing narrative on one of the most impactful scandals in the history of baseball. It has it all, techniques, data science, history and lots of drama.
April 11, 2025
This was a well-crafted, compelling account of the Astros sign-stealing scandal.
January 17, 2023
4.5
Very interesting and well written.
Very interesting and well written.
May 12, 2025
Astros during this period were shamelessly breaking the rules and had a terrible culture in the front office. I cannot stand that organization
November 6, 2022
I'm not a baseball fan by any stretch of the imagination, but I did take notice when the story of the Astro's sign-stealing scandal hit the headlines, and being a security-oriented sort I was interested in hearing more about the details. While Cheated is by no means a poorly-written book, it just didn't sync with me the way I was hoping it would, and I strongly suspect this has a lot to do with my unfamiliarity with the game itself. The book opens nicely with a brief history of sign-stealing in the early days of baseball, and gives a bit of a primer on why sign stealing confers a huge edge to the offending team. The end of the book detailing the eventual crash and burn of not just everyone involved but major league baseball as a whole also kept me very much glued to my seat. But the middle section going into the history of the major players involved just seemed like a slog, as players' names, stats, and play-by-plays flew by in a seemingly never-ending stream. For true baseball fans, I'm willing to bet this book would be a much better fit and so I recommend they give it a whirl.
Read
June 13, 2022Andy Martino does impressive work pulling together all the various elements that culminated in the Houston Astros cheating scandal, not just chronicling all the dirt from the 2017, ’18, and ’19 seasons, but the events and trends that led to it. And he does so with a discerning eye, identifying the sillier rumors as such, and helping readers understand why the Astros might have done what they did without justifying their actions. We feel sympathy for Alex Cora, Carlos Beltran, A.J. Hinch, and maybe even just a tiny bit for Jeff Luhnow (But not for Correa. No thanks. Not me.), but we also feel like they mostly got what they deserve. (Well, Martino kind of leans hard into the notion that Beltran got a raw deal, actually. I get where he’s coming from, but he laid it on a little too thick for me. . .)
I loved how he spent ample time chronicling the history of sign stealing and previous sign-stealing scandals to put things in context. Likewise, his account of the ramping up of the use of high-res camera tech and analytics in baseball helped show this didn’t just come out of nowhere.
If I have any critiques, they would be the following: First, Martino’s a bit of a Yankees homer. Yes, I understand the Yankees are an important secondary character in this whole drama, but Martino devotes a bit too much space and writes a little too glowingly about Aaron Judge and the “Baby Bombers,” and seems especially quick to clear the Yankees of any accusations of shadiness. (Not that I think they did anything close to what the Astros did.)
My second suggestion for improvement is related to that last issue. And this kind of turned into an essay, so feel free to stop reading right here. But if you want to know what I think about the Houston Astros, by all means continue. . .
As quick as Martino is to clarify that the Yankees never crossed any lines, he is very open and honest about the fact that Major League rules kind of allowed for gray-area in-game tech-assisted sign stealing for a couple before the big crack-down in September of 2017, and many clubs were engaged in this, including the Red Sox, who were deemed to have crossed a line by using an Apple Watch, rather than some kind of hand signals or a runner to get notes on signs from their replay room. It was the use of technology that was deemed illegal—uncleared tech, that is. The replay room monitors were not only legal for clubs to have, but required, and it took a little time and the Red Sox Apple Watch incident for the MLB to really clarify that they could not be used for in-game sign stealing at all. But in 2015, ’16, and probably especially ’17, a lot of teams had been using them to try to steal signs during games. Martino does a pretty good job detailing the rise of this practice.
What he maybe could have done a better job at is emphasizing how what the Astros did was clearly different and clearly crossed ethical lines, whereas other clubs were largely operating in gray areas. I mean, he says basically that—three or four times, probably. And he quotes other people saying it. But he could have done a better, clearer job of showing and explaining how and why he believes this to be the case.
Just in case you’re doubting, here is how and why I see what the Astros did as clearly different:
1) As far as I understood Martino’s reporting, what other clubs were doing, even though they were using the monitors with footage from the high-res cameras, was still grounded in the traditional and legal methods of sign stealing and communicating upcoming pitches to the batter—that is, they still filtered things through a runner on second signaling to the guy at the plate. With their trash can, whistling signals, and maybe even use of lights on an outfield scoreboard (?) . . . , the Astros did not hold themselves to that traditional man-on-second model. The hitter could get the information in virtually ANY at bat, not just in that special situation, and could get it more directly. Info was essentially flowing to him directly from the replay room (or monitor in the hallway) through the trash can bangs, etc. The ease and frequency of getting stolen intel to the batter was much higher. This is significant. It seems like the other clubs could have easily devised ways to do this, too, so it is telling that they didn’t. As I read it, something somehow told them that such a practice was just unethical, a clear violation of what baseball is supposed to be. Yeah, you can cheat (steal signs) but you have to WORK for it. It means something that the Astros weren’t afraid to go there while other clubs were.
2) After issuing their report and punishment of the Red Sox for their Apple Watch scheme, the MLB clarified that no in-game use of replay video to steal signs was legal, but it is well documented that the Astros continued to do it anyway. The only other case of a team violating this new doctrine was a lesser offense committed by the 2018 Red Sox that was reportedly a fairly limited version of what many teams were doing before the Sept. 2017 crackdown, always going through a runner on second. (And supposedly this was without the manager or front office’s knowledge, though some doubt this, which is understandable considering the team’s history with 2017 Apple Watch scheme and the fact that former Astros bench coach Alex Cora was manager at the time. I’m probably a little biased, but I believe the Sox on this point . . .)
Thus, by and large all the other teams put a stop to the practice after Sept. 2017, or at least—other than the Red Sox with their ’18 minor infraction—weren’t breaking the rules flagrantly enough to get caught. Houston, on the other hand, as the MLB reports, continued their much more expansive and thorough cheating system largely uninterrupted through the end of the 2017 season and postseason, including their World Series victory over the Dodgers, and then on into 2018. MLB stopped short of saying they did it in 2019, as well, but Martino offers some pretty good evidence that they were still cheating that season, too. I think he’s right, even if he seems focused on evidence of cheating against his precious Yankees. . .
Beltran and other have said the front office never told them about the rule change and Jeff Luhnow said he didn’t know they were cheating as bad as they were. Frankly, those are pretty lame excuses for me. The players knew they were doing something wrong and Luhnow didn’t probe because he didn’t want to know or didn’t want to be on the hook for it. As Martino ably demonstrates, the cut-throat, win-at-all-costs culture that Luhnow brought to the Astros definitely shares blame for the whole thing, regardless of his knowledge of the trash can.
So there you go. Were their crimes unforgivable? Of course not. As I said, Martino’s book does a good job getting you inside the heads of the key players and helps you understand why they ended up crossing the lines they did. But the doesn’t mean their sins should dismissed with a shrug and a flippant “everyone was doing it” comment. Clearly, everyone was not doing what the Astros did. Martino does a good job providing the evidence for that conclusion, but he could have done a better job connecting the dots and arguing for it. And I think that is important, because even though such transgressions, while not unforgivable, certainly deserve punishment, not a single player was punished, nor was their substantial achievement of winning the World Series ever been officially amended with any kind of footnote. This is why we can all feel justified hating the Astros. The MLB didn’t adequately punish them, so we the fans have to. The baseball gods demand it!
I loved how he spent ample time chronicling the history of sign stealing and previous sign-stealing scandals to put things in context. Likewise, his account of the ramping up of the use of high-res camera tech and analytics in baseball helped show this didn’t just come out of nowhere.
If I have any critiques, they would be the following: First, Martino’s a bit of a Yankees homer. Yes, I understand the Yankees are an important secondary character in this whole drama, but Martino devotes a bit too much space and writes a little too glowingly about Aaron Judge and the “Baby Bombers,” and seems especially quick to clear the Yankees of any accusations of shadiness. (Not that I think they did anything close to what the Astros did.)
My second suggestion for improvement is related to that last issue. And this kind of turned into an essay, so feel free to stop reading right here. But if you want to know what I think about the Houston Astros, by all means continue. . .
As quick as Martino is to clarify that the Yankees never crossed any lines, he is very open and honest about the fact that Major League rules kind of allowed for gray-area in-game tech-assisted sign stealing for a couple before the big crack-down in September of 2017, and many clubs were engaged in this, including the Red Sox, who were deemed to have crossed a line by using an Apple Watch, rather than some kind of hand signals or a runner to get notes on signs from their replay room. It was the use of technology that was deemed illegal—uncleared tech, that is. The replay room monitors were not only legal for clubs to have, but required, and it took a little time and the Red Sox Apple Watch incident for the MLB to really clarify that they could not be used for in-game sign stealing at all. But in 2015, ’16, and probably especially ’17, a lot of teams had been using them to try to steal signs during games. Martino does a pretty good job detailing the rise of this practice.
What he maybe could have done a better job at is emphasizing how what the Astros did was clearly different and clearly crossed ethical lines, whereas other clubs were largely operating in gray areas. I mean, he says basically that—three or four times, probably. And he quotes other people saying it. But he could have done a better, clearer job of showing and explaining how and why he believes this to be the case.
Just in case you’re doubting, here is how and why I see what the Astros did as clearly different:
1) As far as I understood Martino’s reporting, what other clubs were doing, even though they were using the monitors with footage from the high-res cameras, was still grounded in the traditional and legal methods of sign stealing and communicating upcoming pitches to the batter—that is, they still filtered things through a runner on second signaling to the guy at the plate. With their trash can, whistling signals, and maybe even use of lights on an outfield scoreboard (?) . . . , the Astros did not hold themselves to that traditional man-on-second model. The hitter could get the information in virtually ANY at bat, not just in that special situation, and could get it more directly. Info was essentially flowing to him directly from the replay room (or monitor in the hallway) through the trash can bangs, etc. The ease and frequency of getting stolen intel to the batter was much higher. This is significant. It seems like the other clubs could have easily devised ways to do this, too, so it is telling that they didn’t. As I read it, something somehow told them that such a practice was just unethical, a clear violation of what baseball is supposed to be. Yeah, you can cheat (steal signs) but you have to WORK for it. It means something that the Astros weren’t afraid to go there while other clubs were.
2) After issuing their report and punishment of the Red Sox for their Apple Watch scheme, the MLB clarified that no in-game use of replay video to steal signs was legal, but it is well documented that the Astros continued to do it anyway. The only other case of a team violating this new doctrine was a lesser offense committed by the 2018 Red Sox that was reportedly a fairly limited version of what many teams were doing before the Sept. 2017 crackdown, always going through a runner on second. (And supposedly this was without the manager or front office’s knowledge, though some doubt this, which is understandable considering the team’s history with 2017 Apple Watch scheme and the fact that former Astros bench coach Alex Cora was manager at the time. I’m probably a little biased, but I believe the Sox on this point . . .)
Thus, by and large all the other teams put a stop to the practice after Sept. 2017, or at least—other than the Red Sox with their ’18 minor infraction—weren’t breaking the rules flagrantly enough to get caught. Houston, on the other hand, as the MLB reports, continued their much more expansive and thorough cheating system largely uninterrupted through the end of the 2017 season and postseason, including their World Series victory over the Dodgers, and then on into 2018. MLB stopped short of saying they did it in 2019, as well, but Martino offers some pretty good evidence that they were still cheating that season, too. I think he’s right, even if he seems focused on evidence of cheating against his precious Yankees. . .
Beltran and other have said the front office never told them about the rule change and Jeff Luhnow said he didn’t know they were cheating as bad as they were. Frankly, those are pretty lame excuses for me. The players knew they were doing something wrong and Luhnow didn’t probe because he didn’t want to know or didn’t want to be on the hook for it. As Martino ably demonstrates, the cut-throat, win-at-all-costs culture that Luhnow brought to the Astros definitely shares blame for the whole thing, regardless of his knowledge of the trash can.
So there you go. Were their crimes unforgivable? Of course not. As I said, Martino’s book does a good job getting you inside the heads of the key players and helps you understand why they ended up crossing the lines they did. But the doesn’t mean their sins should dismissed with a shrug and a flippant “everyone was doing it” comment. Clearly, everyone was not doing what the Astros did. Martino does a good job providing the evidence for that conclusion, but he could have done a better job connecting the dots and arguing for it. And I think that is important, because even though such transgressions, while not unforgivable, certainly deserve punishment, not a single player was punished, nor was their substantial achievement of winning the World Series ever been officially amended with any kind of footnote. This is why we can all feel justified hating the Astros. The MLB didn’t adequately punish them, so we the fans have to. The baseball gods demand it!
April 23, 2024
What’s legal - what a player on the field can figure out with their eyes. Some players have a special flare for stealing signs. Offending runners could expect a pitcher to retaliate, but league has cracked down on this.
Everyone uses standard 4 signs - 1 is a fastball; 2 curve, 3 slider; 4 - change. When a runner is on second, the pitcher and catcher will change from the standard set of signs. They have this prearranged. A one is still a fastball but it may be the second, third or fourth sign shown. There are three patterns that just about everyone uses when they change, so a skilled stealer on second can figure this out. In playoffs and once people got paranoid about Astros even more elaborate changes are made including a card with many sequences on it. Not all batters welcome this information. Just too much to think about; not always right.
Tipping - Even the best pitchers do this without knowing it. It is so hard to detect, but some players become expert like Roberto Alomar, Beltran and Green. Just widening a glove a bit can tip off a pitch. Or, perhaps when it is a fastball they turn the ball in their glove to get the seams right. Not all batters welcome this information. Just too much to think about; not always right.
NOT THE FIRST TIME
1900 - a guy had a box with wires underneath third base where he coached which relayed electrical signal to him which he relayed to hitters. The spotter had opera glassed in the outfield.
Highlanders caught having a guy hidden who would signal pitches by manipulating sign on scoreboard.
1951 - Thopson’s shot heard round the world was a stolen sign. Giants had a guy with a telescope in their outfield clubhouse buzz a catcher in the bullpen. He would hold the ball or throw the ball up in the air signalling fast ball or breaking pitch. The guy behind the telescope finally came clean as he was dying to confirm what was long suspected. Thomson knew it was happening but denied looking to see what pitch was thrown to him in that at bat. But, the death bed confessor said he always looked to see if the batter looked to bullpen to get signal. Thomson did.
SO NOT NEW, BUT - EACH OF THESE CAUSED OUTRAGE AND HURT PLAYERS. BRANCA FROM THE DODGERS LIVED A LIFE OF TORMENT FOR GIVING UP THOMSON’S HOMERUN. So it does not justify it.
With TV A few teams would look at live broadcast hoping that camera would be put on catcher at right time. None ever caught red-handed at this.
Bobby Valentine of the Mets used team cameras to try to figure out third baseman’s call. Reviewed tapes after the game. Way too much work and when it was discovered he said he did not know it was illegal came clean and ended it.
Yankees and Astros were studying film to determine patterns of what a pitcher will change to with a man on second BEFORE THE GAME. Beltran a big part of this in both NY and Houston. Then the Sox did this as well. Astros analytics also kept a data set of tendencies. A gray area since it was not an in-game operation and were only determining what set of signs might be changed to.
The turning point came when instant replay was introduced. Each team has a replay room for purpose of informing manager if he should challenge. Sox got caught relaying signs via an apple watch to players in dugout who relayed to the runner - so only when runner was on. This was in-game so clearly illegal. Fined and Commissioner stated that in future teams would lose draft picks. Electronic devises cannot be used.
ASTROS -
System - In 2017, A monitor was in the dugout which was used to look at catcher. In 2017, trash can was smashed to indicate breaking ball. So every pitch was looked at not just when runner on. They modified system to use replay room and not dugout monitor. A drill was used in the wall behind dugout to signal a player or coach. Trash can discarded for other signals including whistling and perhaps flashing lights. It was in use during world series. Continued through 2019 when fiers, with another team, came clean and went on record. Had long been common knowledge that something was going on, but what? Teams, particularly in playoffs were aggressive in having Minute Maid park searched and changing signs.
Report came out because players were given immunity and confirmed the story. One item not confirmed was that Altuve was wearing a buzzer when he hit a walk-off homerun. He refused to have his shirt torn off of him. Story was that his wife didn’t like it or that he had a bad tattoo. Astros fined and lost draft picks. Hinch and Luhnow and Cora suspended - not players.
A rare time in which players did not rally to other players. There was outrage. Consider that 9 pitchers lost their jobs after facing the Astros.
Hinch - why did he not stop it? Perhaps because his first gig as a manager in Arizona was plagued by veteran player revolts. Did this make him indulgent? Conflict averse?
Owner - Jim Crane - A real idiot. His consulting team was caught making statement - don’t hire Black people because you can’t fire them. They worked with Saudi Arabia, and advised Trump to cut back on medical care and supplies to discourage migration. Had an innovate, get promoted or get fired attitude which fostered a program to steal signs. Got the team by agreeing to move it to AL.
Luhnow - GM Known for aggressive style and love of innovation in analytics. Fired. Sued. Claims he did not know but regrets culture he set up and lack of control. He traded for Osuna in spite of video taped evidence of his abuse of a woman. Everyone advised against it, but he felt they needed a closer. Also, slow to apologize to a female reporter savaged by a coach for writing critical comments about Osuna.
Beltran - At heart an introvert, but would fight for what was right. He refused a rehab stint in Florida because facilities so poor which forced majors to change this situation. Then fought to have interpreters for Spanish players. He was a brilliant sign stealer and pitch tipping expert. Only player named in report because he was the leader although some suspect it was pay back for making owner’s lives difficult. Some sympathy here as he was the only player who got punished by losing managers job with Mets before it even started.
Correa - was most defensive. Claimed it stopped in 2017 but that is not true. Only the trash can was stopped. Other methods employed. He and Beltran and others had convinced themselves that every team was doing this - not true. In addition, the memo from commissioner’s office that clearly banned the practice was not shared with them.
Cora - Bench Coach and heavily involved. A great student of the game. He agreed that staying on with Sox would be a distraction.
Players - Some refused to participate and some pitchers were angry. Some used it more than others. Altuve at first was against and then used it much less than others. Others said he was Angry when they did use it with him at bat. Springer, McCormick, Gonzalez huge benefactors. Home/road split telling and a fan was able to chart out regular season. It was too loud during playoffs to collect data.
SOX - In 2018 they were using replay room to figure out what patterns pitchers were switching to. They would then relay this to man on second when situation presented itself. No evidence that Cora was involved. This was much less than Astros who were signaling batter when nobody was on base.
Everyone uses standard 4 signs - 1 is a fastball; 2 curve, 3 slider; 4 - change. When a runner is on second, the pitcher and catcher will change from the standard set of signs. They have this prearranged. A one is still a fastball but it may be the second, third or fourth sign shown. There are three patterns that just about everyone uses when they change, so a skilled stealer on second can figure this out. In playoffs and once people got paranoid about Astros even more elaborate changes are made including a card with many sequences on it. Not all batters welcome this information. Just too much to think about; not always right.
Tipping - Even the best pitchers do this without knowing it. It is so hard to detect, but some players become expert like Roberto Alomar, Beltran and Green. Just widening a glove a bit can tip off a pitch. Or, perhaps when it is a fastball they turn the ball in their glove to get the seams right. Not all batters welcome this information. Just too much to think about; not always right.
NOT THE FIRST TIME
1900 - a guy had a box with wires underneath third base where he coached which relayed electrical signal to him which he relayed to hitters. The spotter had opera glassed in the outfield.
Highlanders caught having a guy hidden who would signal pitches by manipulating sign on scoreboard.
1951 - Thopson’s shot heard round the world was a stolen sign. Giants had a guy with a telescope in their outfield clubhouse buzz a catcher in the bullpen. He would hold the ball or throw the ball up in the air signalling fast ball or breaking pitch. The guy behind the telescope finally came clean as he was dying to confirm what was long suspected. Thomson knew it was happening but denied looking to see what pitch was thrown to him in that at bat. But, the death bed confessor said he always looked to see if the batter looked to bullpen to get signal. Thomson did.
SO NOT NEW, BUT - EACH OF THESE CAUSED OUTRAGE AND HURT PLAYERS. BRANCA FROM THE DODGERS LIVED A LIFE OF TORMENT FOR GIVING UP THOMSON’S HOMERUN. So it does not justify it.
With TV A few teams would look at live broadcast hoping that camera would be put on catcher at right time. None ever caught red-handed at this.
Bobby Valentine of the Mets used team cameras to try to figure out third baseman’s call. Reviewed tapes after the game. Way too much work and when it was discovered he said he did not know it was illegal came clean and ended it.
Yankees and Astros were studying film to determine patterns of what a pitcher will change to with a man on second BEFORE THE GAME. Beltran a big part of this in both NY and Houston. Then the Sox did this as well. Astros analytics also kept a data set of tendencies. A gray area since it was not an in-game operation and were only determining what set of signs might be changed to.
The turning point came when instant replay was introduced. Each team has a replay room for purpose of informing manager if he should challenge. Sox got caught relaying signs via an apple watch to players in dugout who relayed to the runner - so only when runner was on. This was in-game so clearly illegal. Fined and Commissioner stated that in future teams would lose draft picks. Electronic devises cannot be used.
ASTROS -
System - In 2017, A monitor was in the dugout which was used to look at catcher. In 2017, trash can was smashed to indicate breaking ball. So every pitch was looked at not just when runner on. They modified system to use replay room and not dugout monitor. A drill was used in the wall behind dugout to signal a player or coach. Trash can discarded for other signals including whistling and perhaps flashing lights. It was in use during world series. Continued through 2019 when fiers, with another team, came clean and went on record. Had long been common knowledge that something was going on, but what? Teams, particularly in playoffs were aggressive in having Minute Maid park searched and changing signs.
Report came out because players were given immunity and confirmed the story. One item not confirmed was that Altuve was wearing a buzzer when he hit a walk-off homerun. He refused to have his shirt torn off of him. Story was that his wife didn’t like it or that he had a bad tattoo. Astros fined and lost draft picks. Hinch and Luhnow and Cora suspended - not players.
A rare time in which players did not rally to other players. There was outrage. Consider that 9 pitchers lost their jobs after facing the Astros.
Hinch - why did he not stop it? Perhaps because his first gig as a manager in Arizona was plagued by veteran player revolts. Did this make him indulgent? Conflict averse?
Owner - Jim Crane - A real idiot. His consulting team was caught making statement - don’t hire Black people because you can’t fire them. They worked with Saudi Arabia, and advised Trump to cut back on medical care and supplies to discourage migration. Had an innovate, get promoted or get fired attitude which fostered a program to steal signs. Got the team by agreeing to move it to AL.
Luhnow - GM Known for aggressive style and love of innovation in analytics. Fired. Sued. Claims he did not know but regrets culture he set up and lack of control. He traded for Osuna in spite of video taped evidence of his abuse of a woman. Everyone advised against it, but he felt they needed a closer. Also, slow to apologize to a female reporter savaged by a coach for writing critical comments about Osuna.
Beltran - At heart an introvert, but would fight for what was right. He refused a rehab stint in Florida because facilities so poor which forced majors to change this situation. Then fought to have interpreters for Spanish players. He was a brilliant sign stealer and pitch tipping expert. Only player named in report because he was the leader although some suspect it was pay back for making owner’s lives difficult. Some sympathy here as he was the only player who got punished by losing managers job with Mets before it even started.
Correa - was most defensive. Claimed it stopped in 2017 but that is not true. Only the trash can was stopped. Other methods employed. He and Beltran and others had convinced themselves that every team was doing this - not true. In addition, the memo from commissioner’s office that clearly banned the practice was not shared with them.
Cora - Bench Coach and heavily involved. A great student of the game. He agreed that staying on with Sox would be a distraction.
Players - Some refused to participate and some pitchers were angry. Some used it more than others. Altuve at first was against and then used it much less than others. Others said he was Angry when they did use it with him at bat. Springer, McCormick, Gonzalez huge benefactors. Home/road split telling and a fan was able to chart out regular season. It was too loud during playoffs to collect data.
SOX - In 2018 they were using replay room to figure out what patterns pitchers were switching to. They would then relay this to man on second when situation presented itself. No evidence that Cora was involved. This was much less than Astros who were signaling batter when nobody was on base.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 24, 2021
Cheated is an incredibly well sourced and well written tale of the Astros cheating scandal in 2017. The Astros won the World Series that year, their first in franchise history. What should've been a feel good story for the city and the team was overshadowed by a massive sign stealing operation that gave the Astros hitters a competitive advantage.
Martino does a great job chronicling the history of sign stealing throughout major league baseball. This was fascinating to me, as sign stealing has evolved in the technology age from a legal practice that was really only possible by a man on second base, to an entire media operation designed to steal and communicate signs. The book did bog down at parts when Martino was introducing and telling the story of the various characters involved, and we didn't really dive into the actual cheating scandal until about halfway through the book, but the backstory of the teams, players, managers, and office execs enriched the reading experience overall.
While I was familiar with the scandal, there is enough detailed and new information in the book for it to be totally worth the read. I almost feel like this story has not been reported on enough, as the COVID pandemic postponed the 2020 baseball season and dominated the news, Any baseball or sports fan will love this inside look at one of the biggest scandals in sports history.
I was given a free ebook copy of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Martino does a great job chronicling the history of sign stealing throughout major league baseball. This was fascinating to me, as sign stealing has evolved in the technology age from a legal practice that was really only possible by a man on second base, to an entire media operation designed to steal and communicate signs. The book did bog down at parts when Martino was introducing and telling the story of the various characters involved, and we didn't really dive into the actual cheating scandal until about halfway through the book, but the backstory of the teams, players, managers, and office execs enriched the reading experience overall.
While I was familiar with the scandal, there is enough detailed and new information in the book for it to be totally worth the read. I almost feel like this story has not been reported on enough, as the COVID pandemic postponed the 2020 baseball season and dominated the news, Any baseball or sports fan will love this inside look at one of the biggest scandals in sports history.
I was given a free ebook copy of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
July 8, 2025
Imagine this: I was born about four hours away from Houston, TX, one year after that city has gotten a major league baseball team. So I grew up a fan of that team, listening to the radio broadcasts regularly, tracking their progress in the newspaper and occasionally going to their amazing Astrodome to watch in person. The team had some great players over the years and some very good seasons, but could never win a championship. Finally, in 2005, they made it to the World Series only to be swept by the Chicago White Sox. Then they went through some very rough years, but showed some life in 2015 and made it back to the World Series in 2017. I'm thinking, "Getting swept is rough. I'll be happy if we just win one game." Well, we didn't win just one! We won four, including the decisive Game 7 in Los Angeles, to win the championship. It was one of the greatest days of my life. I couldn't believe it!
Then the team remained very, very good and has stayed that way ever since, which is amazing and beyond the wildest hopes of any baseball fan. So to have my team suddenly exposed in a cheating scandal was just, well, beyond stunning. I couldn't (and still can't) believe it. This could have happened to 29 other teams, but we're the ones who hired Jeff Luhnow and it happened to us. At the time, I thought I was done with baseball and, if Luhnow and Hinch had not been fired, I definitely would have been looking for another team to pull for.
Post Rant. Andy Martino did an excellent job of writing this book. He gives the reader just enough background to understand how a player would view sign-stealing. He is also very fair in his assessments of the major players: Hinch, Luhnow, Cora and Beltran. He does not turn them into monsters or describe them as anything they're not. I'm not sure why exactly I read this book, but I will say that Martino helped me understand the scandal and, just maybe, put it to bed a little bit. And winning the '22 World Series certainly helped with that! Go Astros!!!
Then the team remained very, very good and has stayed that way ever since, which is amazing and beyond the wildest hopes of any baseball fan. So to have my team suddenly exposed in a cheating scandal was just, well, beyond stunning. I couldn't (and still can't) believe it. This could have happened to 29 other teams, but we're the ones who hired Jeff Luhnow and it happened to us. At the time, I thought I was done with baseball and, if Luhnow and Hinch had not been fired, I definitely would have been looking for another team to pull for.
Post Rant. Andy Martino did an excellent job of writing this book. He gives the reader just enough background to understand how a player would view sign-stealing. He is also very fair in his assessments of the major players: Hinch, Luhnow, Cora and Beltran. He does not turn them into monsters or describe them as anything they're not. I'm not sure why exactly I read this book, but I will say that Martino helped me understand the scandal and, just maybe, put it to bed a little bit. And winning the '22 World Series certainly helped with that! Go Astros!!!
February 22, 2024
This is the sort of completely-murder-free true crime (or at least adjacent to that genre, although I'm not sure whether any actual crimes were committed) that is definitely up my alley! I'd been a bit of a baseball fan as a kid because my dad was a fan, but I hadn't really thought about it in a while—this book got me back into feeling fannish about the sport just in time for my home team (the Padres) to have their best playoffs performance since that aforementioned childhood. So I'm thankful to it for that!
I thought that Martino seemed a little too happy to paper over a couple of people's wrongdoing and accept their excuses, like Taubman who screamed at the female reporters about how happy he was they got Osuna (pitcher who had committed domestic violence). On page 213, Martino claims that oh actually Taubman was actually just saying that because he agreed with her and he felt bad, which is ridiculous. Earlier (p. 112) his description of the Yankees' wrongdoing as having been an immediately-self-reported mistake by Larry Rothschild actually sounded plausible when I read it but then when I googled it didn't match up with what other people were saying, and considering I've seen more knowledgeable reviewers complain that this author is too pro-Yankees, I suspect that that's another case of bias shining through. The rest of the story feels mostly balanced to me as an uninformed reader, but I just don't entirely trust the author considering his obvious capability for bias.
I thought that Martino seemed a little too happy to paper over a couple of people's wrongdoing and accept their excuses, like Taubman who screamed at the female reporters about how happy he was they got Osuna (pitcher who had committed domestic violence). On page 213, Martino claims that oh actually Taubman was actually just saying that because he agreed with her and he felt bad, which is ridiculous. Earlier (p. 112) his description of the Yankees' wrongdoing as having been an immediately-self-reported mistake by Larry Rothschild actually sounded plausible when I read it but then when I googled it didn't match up with what other people were saying, and considering I've seen more knowledgeable reviewers complain that this author is too pro-Yankees, I suspect that that's another case of bias shining through. The rest of the story feels mostly balanced to me as an uninformed reader, but I just don't entirely trust the author considering his obvious capability for bias.
June 26, 2021
As a Dodger fan I didn’t think it was possible to hate the Astros any more than I already did but this wonderfully reported and written book really showed what a terrible organization Houston was. A captivating, yet infuriating, read!
November 5, 2021
I finished reading this book a couple of hours before watching the Houston Astros lose the last game of the 2021 World Series to the Atlanta Braves, and it made me feel much better about the outcome (I’m not a fan of “The Chop”).
Martino opened with the history of sign stealing, going back more than 100 years to the first “electronic” efforts in 1900 (a guy with opera glasses behind center field relaying signs to a Phillies player/third-base coach via a light electric shock from a buzzer buried in the ground). As a former history student, I generally like this approach, but at first even I thought he was taking too long to get to the point—I didn’t actually need the whole biography of the guy who dreamed up the buzzer stunt.
But as I kept reading, I became glad Martino was taking his time, as he described the continuum from the always acceptable reading of a pitcher who’s “tipping” his pitches to sign stealing. I especially liked his clear explanation of the difference between acceptable and unacceptable sign stealing: “When a sign is stolen with the naked eye—say, by a runner at second base peering in at the catcher—it is legal. When done with the assistance of technology, whether a camera or binoculars, it is cheating.”
Okay, then. I was genuinely surprised to learn that MLB doesn’t actually have an official rule against sign stealing, per se; its rule, too, hinges on the use of technology. See something useful and tell your teammate in the dugout, or sign it from second base? Go for it. See something on video replay during the game and whistle when a fastball is coming? Nope, that crosses the line.
Martino then spent some time delineating the teaching and handing down of legit sign stealing techniques, from older players to younger, a little part of what Roger Angell once famously called the “web of the game.” Cito Gaston learned about the art of spotting pitch tipping as a player in the 1960s and 1970s, and taught it to his players when he managed in the 1990s. One of his players, Roberto Alomar, in turn helped teach the techniques and principles to Carlos Delgado, who developed them further in the 1990s and early 2000s, and eventually taught them to Carlos Beltrán, later named as one of the “masterminds” of the Astros system.
He also answered some specific questions that had lingered—yes, the Astros used the trash-can system in the 2017 World Series, and yes, they continued to use other illegal, tech-based forms of sign stealing in 2018 and 2019—and covered the various rumors and unproven allegations, explaining which there was evidence for and which there wasn’t (no one has found evidence of players wearing buzzers).
I was particularly curious about the guilty players’ mindsets, throughout the years of cheating and afterwards. The line between what’s okay and what’s not seems pretty darn clear, and most people don’t like to think of themselves as “bad guys,” or cheaters, so what were they thinking? The only real answer seemed to be a combination of projection and paranoia; the players involved were convinced that all the other teams were doing it, so that made it okay. Why they were so convinced is never explained. Sadly, this fits a common pattern of bad people simply assuming that everyone is just as bad as they are, and being genuinely surprised to learn that no, it’s not normal to cheat on one’s tests in school, or on one’s taxes in adulthood.
It’s a corrosive view of the world.
Even worse, it doesn’t seem like many of the guilty parties feel any real remorse, even today. There’s a whole section on Beltrán, the only player named in the commissioner’s report, and how he lost his dream job of managing the Mets before he even got a chance to manage a single game. There’s no indication that he felt any guilt, or admitted that what he’d helped set up was wrong; everything was about him feeling singled out.
But Martino pointed out the specific problem of Beltrán taking over the Mets, when their best pitcher, Jacob deGrom, was one of the players who felt victimized by the Astros’ cheating; how, exactly, would that have worked out? The only worse situation I could imagine would be if Beltrán had been in line to manage the Dodgers, who quite understandably feel that the Astros stole the 2017 World Series from them.
And, awkwardly, the “core” players of the Astros through this year are also the core who were at the heart of the cheating. While most of the 2017 players are gone, they remain, and they’ve been aggressive rather than apologetic. They were lucky, in a sick way, that they were caught right before the pandemic, because fans who wanted to boo and express their anger couldn’t go to games in 2020. And then this year, they tried to say they shouldn’t be booed, anymore, because it happened so lonnnnng ago (one player called 2017 “the distant past”!).
Their basic attitude seems to be, “Fine, you caught us, but it’s past, get over it”—the classic response of a guilty person who just wants to avoid responsibility. Ugh.
I was really hoping to see some, or any, sense of contrition. “Yes, we damaged the game, and hurt a lot of people (for example, several pitchers lost their jobs at least partially because of doing badly against the Astros). We’re really, genuinely sorry, and here’s what we’re going to do to make amends.”
But no.
Martino opened with the history of sign stealing, going back more than 100 years to the first “electronic” efforts in 1900 (a guy with opera glasses behind center field relaying signs to a Phillies player/third-base coach via a light electric shock from a buzzer buried in the ground). As a former history student, I generally like this approach, but at first even I thought he was taking too long to get to the point—I didn’t actually need the whole biography of the guy who dreamed up the buzzer stunt.
But as I kept reading, I became glad Martino was taking his time, as he described the continuum from the always acceptable reading of a pitcher who’s “tipping” his pitches to sign stealing. I especially liked his clear explanation of the difference between acceptable and unacceptable sign stealing: “When a sign is stolen with the naked eye—say, by a runner at second base peering in at the catcher—it is legal. When done with the assistance of technology, whether a camera or binoculars, it is cheating.”
Okay, then. I was genuinely surprised to learn that MLB doesn’t actually have an official rule against sign stealing, per se; its rule, too, hinges on the use of technology. See something useful and tell your teammate in the dugout, or sign it from second base? Go for it. See something on video replay during the game and whistle when a fastball is coming? Nope, that crosses the line.
Martino then spent some time delineating the teaching and handing down of legit sign stealing techniques, from older players to younger, a little part of what Roger Angell once famously called the “web of the game.” Cito Gaston learned about the art of spotting pitch tipping as a player in the 1960s and 1970s, and taught it to his players when he managed in the 1990s. One of his players, Roberto Alomar, in turn helped teach the techniques and principles to Carlos Delgado, who developed them further in the 1990s and early 2000s, and eventually taught them to Carlos Beltrán, later named as one of the “masterminds” of the Astros system.
He also answered some specific questions that had lingered—yes, the Astros used the trash-can system in the 2017 World Series, and yes, they continued to use other illegal, tech-based forms of sign stealing in 2018 and 2019—and covered the various rumors and unproven allegations, explaining which there was evidence for and which there wasn’t (no one has found evidence of players wearing buzzers).
I was particularly curious about the guilty players’ mindsets, throughout the years of cheating and afterwards. The line between what’s okay and what’s not seems pretty darn clear, and most people don’t like to think of themselves as “bad guys,” or cheaters, so what were they thinking? The only real answer seemed to be a combination of projection and paranoia; the players involved were convinced that all the other teams were doing it, so that made it okay. Why they were so convinced is never explained. Sadly, this fits a common pattern of bad people simply assuming that everyone is just as bad as they are, and being genuinely surprised to learn that no, it’s not normal to cheat on one’s tests in school, or on one’s taxes in adulthood.
It’s a corrosive view of the world.
Even worse, it doesn’t seem like many of the guilty parties feel any real remorse, even today. There’s a whole section on Beltrán, the only player named in the commissioner’s report, and how he lost his dream job of managing the Mets before he even got a chance to manage a single game. There’s no indication that he felt any guilt, or admitted that what he’d helped set up was wrong; everything was about him feeling singled out.
But Martino pointed out the specific problem of Beltrán taking over the Mets, when their best pitcher, Jacob deGrom, was one of the players who felt victimized by the Astros’ cheating; how, exactly, would that have worked out? The only worse situation I could imagine would be if Beltrán had been in line to manage the Dodgers, who quite understandably feel that the Astros stole the 2017 World Series from them.
And, awkwardly, the “core” players of the Astros through this year are also the core who were at the heart of the cheating. While most of the 2017 players are gone, they remain, and they’ve been aggressive rather than apologetic. They were lucky, in a sick way, that they were caught right before the pandemic, because fans who wanted to boo and express their anger couldn’t go to games in 2020. And then this year, they tried to say they shouldn’t be booed, anymore, because it happened so lonnnnng ago (one player called 2017 “the distant past”!).
Their basic attitude seems to be, “Fine, you caught us, but it’s past, get over it”—the classic response of a guilty person who just wants to avoid responsibility. Ugh.
I was really hoping to see some, or any, sense of contrition. “Yes, we damaged the game, and hurt a lot of people (for example, several pitchers lost their jobs at least partially because of doing badly against the Astros). We’re really, genuinely sorry, and here’s what we’re going to do to make amends.”
But no.
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