Major League Baseball revealed the results of its investigation into the Boston Red Sox for the so-called Apple Watch sign-stealing scandal and counter-charge that the New York Yankees improperly used a television camera for the same purpose. The classic Friday afternoon news dump — commissioner Rob Manfred’s statement hit this reporter’s inbox at 4:32 p.m. — announced that the Red Sox would only be fined and the Yankees were exonerated of the original allegation although they would pay a smaller amount for an unrelated violation that was uncovered.
What we learned through this whole fiasco is that on-field tech will continue to be closely scrutinized. Few sports have embraced tech the way MLB has through its radar-tracking Statcast system to its multi-billion dollar spinoff that powers live streaming to its top-rated sports app, but the league prefers to keep those advances at a heavily regulated arm’s length when they impact the on-field competition. Instant replay is great but only in a controlled process that emerged after numerous research studies and committee meetings.
Regarding the Red Sox, Manfred’s statement specifically sites the rulebook, which bars equipment that “may be used for the purpose of stealing signs or conveying information designed to give a Club an advantage” even though sign stealing is not, on its own, a problem. That’s why there was such a light punishment — fine money that’s being donated to Hurricane Irma relief rather than any forfeiture of wins or draft picks. When the Red Sox broke international scouting rules, they were forced to relinquish the rights to five prospects and were prohibited from signing any other international players for a year. That was a more egregious violation of a rule’s objective, whereas the Apple Watch matter was a violation only of the means of an objective (sign stealing), not the objective itself.
The reason that rule still exists, it would seem, relates to Manfred’s later comment that “the prevalence of technology, especially the technology used in the replay process, has made it increasingly difficult to monitor appropriate and inappropriate uses of electronic equipment.” This is why the Yankees were fined, too, because they used the dugout phone for an improper use, even though “the substance of the communications that took place on the dugout phone was not a violation of any Rule or Regulation in and of itself.”
In short, MLB is concerned that the introduction of any kind of new technology or communication could lead to unintended consequences such as a technological arms race or nefarious insider information being leaked to gamblers or whomever. That’s why there are very clear and strict rules governing tech that impacts game play even when the objective (i.e. sign stealing) is not inherently illegal.
Also, there was no Apple Watch. Despite all the initial headlines and the subsequent jokes about the role of an Apple Watch in the sign-stealing subterfuge — Slate chimed in, “The Boston Red Sox Finally Found a Good Use for the Apple Watch” — it was a FitBit all along. Boston Globe national baseball writer Nick Cafardo reported that, via a league source, that no Apple Watch was used, perhaps hastening the tech giant’s motivation to rebrand their watch as more of a fitness device than a high-brow communication piece for the arm.