A letter written by Major League Baseball and obtained by a local television station confirms that the New York Yankees were fined $100,000 in 2017 following an investigation into allegations of thefts from signals.
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As reported Tuesday by SNY, which cited a text sent by commissioner Rob Manfred to general manager Brian Cashman, the big leagues concluded that the affected organization used its dedicated video replay office at Yankee Stadium in 2015 and 2016 to decode opponents’ signals and then relay them to the batter through a runner at second base. In games played abroad, the club used the telephone located inside the dugout to relay information.
“As publicly reported in 2017, the New York Yankees were fined for inappropriate use of the phone in the dugout, as replay rules prohibit the transmission of any information other than that relating to the dispute of a game,” explained the circuit in a press release on Tuesday.
Protest
On the side of the Yankees, the disappointment with the distribution of the letter is well felt. Moreover, they had seen their request to keep it under seal rejected by a federal appeals court on Thursday.
“The Yankees fought vigorously against the production of this letter, not only because of the legal principle involved, but also to prevent the dissemination of false conclusions about events that took place before the signals theft rules were put in place. by the commissioner. What is clear here is that the fine was imposed before the new standards and parameters decided by the major leagues,” the team said.
Elsewhere in baseball, the Houston Astros had been sanctioned for implementing a signal theft system in effect in 2017, the year they won the World Series. In particular, their general manager Jeff Luhnow and their manager AJ Hinch had been suspended for a year only to be immediately fired, not to mention financial penalties and the loss of two draft picks.
By the fall of that year, Manfred had tightened the regulations, but it was in January 2020 that the penalties were announced against the Astros.
