Los Angeles Dodgers All-Star outfielder Mookie Betts shared details of the Boston Red Sox sign-stealing scandal on Sunday, admitting to being absolutely conscious of what was occurring.
Dylan Hernandez of The Los Angeles Times wrote a column Sunday on the Dodgers’ current hiring of former Red Sox video replay coordinator J.T. Watkins and talked with each Betts and L.A. ace Clayton Kershaw concerning the addition.
Per Hernandez, Kershaw did not have a problem with the Dodgers bringing within the former minor league catcher to assist the workforce with their “hitting game plan,” saying “no matter what enhancements technology had back then, there needs to be a clear distinction between what the Astros did and what everybody else did.”
What Kershaw is referring to is when the Houston Astros used a “live video feed to steal signs in real time and relayed that information to hitters,” in response to Hernandez’s column. The Astros defeated the Dodgers within the 2017 World Series whereas utilizing these techniques.
“The Red Sox’s scheme ‘by its very nature, was far more limited in scope and impact,’ according to the findings of an investigation by the commissioner’s office that were released in 2020,” Hernandez wrote.
According to Hernandez, Watkins was chargeable for “decoding opponents’ signs,” which was authorized. He additionally used his entry because the video replay coordinator to stay recreation feeds to “supplement or update his work, according to the commissioner’s office. This in-game use of video to decipher signs was illegal.”
Per Hernandez, the knowledge gathered by Watkins was then handed to the Red Sox bench and utilized by runners who reached second base, “who in turn would steal the catcher’s sign and signal to the hitter the kind of pitch that was about to be delivered.”
Ultimately, the commissioner’s workplace concluded that “the knowledge was solely related when the Red Sox had a runner on second base” and Watkins was the one member of the Red Sox group who was punished, being suspended for the 2020 season.
Last week as Boston opened camp, supervisor Alex Cora stated he wished to maneuver previous each the Astros’ 2017 sign-stealing scandal and the Red Sox scandal of 2018. He did, nonetheless, admit to creating a “big mistake” with Houston in 2017.
Boston defeated Los Angeles within the 2018 World Series and Betts was traded to the Dodgers in Feb. 2020. Cora and the Red Sox mutually agreed to half methods forward of the 2020 season, he was suspended for all the pandemic-shortened marketing campaign and was rehired forward of the 2021 season, when the workforce made it to the ALCS earlier than falling to the Astros.
Los Angeles gained its first World Series in 32 years in 2020.
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