In case someone has not been following baseball, the Houston Astros stole signs on their way to a World Series' Championship by using a camera located in CF. Someone in the Astros organization would zoom in on the catcher and figure out the signs used by the other team's catcher. That information would be relayed to Astros players, supposedly by banging a garbage can. There is some evidence that Astro players used a pager attached to their body, so once the sign was located, the batter would be "buzzed" if the next pitch would be a fastball.
Anyway...
The whole Astros sign stealing issue gets to the ethics of sign stealing, and how it relates to youth sports. How far is too far? And, what age group?
These were my ethical guidelines when I coached:
In college, HS, 16U and 18U ball, it seems that "the gloves are off". It is fair for coaches to steal signs or "tells" and relay that info to the batter. Basically, the idea is that the pitcher and catcher are "old enough to know better" and should know how to hide signs. Pitchers should be hiding disguising pitches.
For 14U, it is fair for the coach to point out "tells" to his batters. The coach is teaching batters how to anticipate the pitch by carefully looking at a pitcher's motion and the pitcher's tendencies. However, a coach stealing signs is off-limits. (One of my pet peeves is a 30+ YOA adult bragging how they picked signs from a 14YOA catcher.)
For 12U, the coach should not do anything about sign stealing. The kids should be focused on hitting, base running, throwing, etc., not trying to steal signs.
Anyway...
The whole Astros sign stealing issue gets to the ethics of sign stealing, and how it relates to youth sports. How far is too far? And, what age group?
These were my ethical guidelines when I coached:
In college, HS, 16U and 18U ball, it seems that "the gloves are off". It is fair for coaches to steal signs or "tells" and relay that info to the batter. Basically, the idea is that the pitcher and catcher are "old enough to know better" and should know how to hide signs. Pitchers should be hiding disguising pitches.
For 14U, it is fair for the coach to point out "tells" to his batters. The coach is teaching batters how to anticipate the pitch by carefully looking at a pitcher's motion and the pitcher's tendencies. However, a coach stealing signs is off-limits. (One of my pet peeves is a 30+ YOA adult bragging how they picked signs from a 14YOA catcher.)
For 12U, the coach should not do anything about sign stealing. The kids should be focused on hitting, base running, throwing, etc., not trying to steal signs.