I think Mark Rober made a video where he creates a sign stealing device, though not necessarily as advanced as what the Astros were doing
Plus teams often do "encrypt" their signs. That is why you might see a third base coach give 10 different signals. Only one or two of them are needed to convey the instructions. The rest are just used to hide the true signal. However it is now trivially easy to decrypt these signs using machine learning. Here is a video on it.[1]
Exactly. I lost whatever respect I had left for baseball from this non-scandal. These signs are 100% public info, everyone can see them. Don't like opposite team analyzing them? Too bad. Come up with something better or just plan your strategy out of sight.
Whining about other teams looking at 100% public info is beyond silly, I can't have any respect for a sport that thinks this is somehow "cheating".
I played HS baseball and we were taught to pay attention to other teams signs and try to decipher the opposing teams tip off signal was. (The sign immediately before the intended sign)
It’s common, even in little league to try and pickup bunts and steal calls.
The Astros however used the home field advantage and centerfield camera to pickup pitch signs, and then relay that to batters so they knew when a pitch with minimum movement was coming.
That’s cheating through and through. The visiting team is straight not on the same playing field there.
Doctoring the ball, similarly has been a thing for a long time. But only those most obvious (pine tar on the hat) generally got smacked. And even sometimes not then. But generally it’s a level playing field.