Yankees: Alleged Cheating Video Making Rounds on Social Media Explained

New York Yankees OF Aaron Judge standing on second, which you'll get for free in 2020 (Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)
New York Yankees OF Aaron Judge standing on second, which you'll get for free in 2020 (Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images) /
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There’s been a video going around social media that has fans accusing the Yankees of cheating.

Once again, here we are, listening to Houston Astros fans try and drag the New York Yankees for alleged cheating and sign-stealing because they can’t live with their own guilt and wrongdoing. Sorry guys! You were outed, fully investigated, and punished. It’s nobody else’s problem except yours.

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But that hasn’t stopped them from playing the blame game. Astros supporters are looking for every possible opportunity to paint the Yankees as the real villain … despite the fact New York was already investigated, wasn’t found guilty, and didn’t win a World Series while orchestrating an elaborate cheating scheme.

So when “executive producer” Michael Schwab posted a blurry video with no timestamps and no relevant information of a camera guy (apparently at Yankee Stadium) allegedly “stealing signs,” that was the last straw. If you think this is any sort of smoking gun, we’ve got a bridge to sell you.

Before Astros assistant GM (and very cool guy) Brandon Taubman was fired for screaming “I’m so f—ing glad we got [Roberto] Osuna” repeatedly at a group of female reporters — Osuna was suspended by MLB for violating the domestic violence policy — he apparently spotted this Yankees cameraman in center field, took a video, and snitched to Major League Baseball.

But, again, nothing came of this and almost two years later Astros fans are trying to make something of it … with baseless claims.

“A person with direct knowledge of those investigations told SNY that they are ‘100 percent certain’ the video that surfaced this week on Twitter was the same one already cleared twice by the league,” SNY’s Andy Martino wrote.

“That means that it was definitively not shot during the 2018 postseason,” he continued, before launching into a full explanation of the situation.

“Some of the backstory is already known to the public. In late May of 2018, the Yankees received approval from Major League Baseball to test a high-speed camera (a Fastec, which some less tech-savvy baseball people refer to as an Edgertronic, another type of high-speed camera) that would help their own players improve by taking images of them at more than 1,000 frames per second.”

The Astros complained about this in 2018 via Taubman and then again in 2019 when former general manager Jeff Luhnow was set to get canned for turning a blind eye to Houston’s scandal. It’s been twice cleared by the league, which has interviewed the Yankees and dug through text messages and emails.

So let’s investigate the Yankees for a third time, find no wrongdoing, and repeat this all over again? Maybe just focus on yourselves, Astros fans, or you might catch a Joe Kelly fastball to the dome if you’re not looking.

Next. Revisiting the David Cone Trade. dark