Darren Yamashita-USA TODAY Sports
Among the madness that captivated baseball Thursday — Carlos Beltran’s niece with scoops? Sure! Scott Brosius’ son an intrepid reporter? Yep! — was a mad Evan Longoria.
In the days after one of the darker days in MLB history, the league announcing the damning findings of the Astros’ high-tech sign-stealing system that has cost three managers their jobs, baseball fans and perhaps baseball players’ distant families have sprung into conspiratorial mode: How else did Houston cheat?
Screenshots were aplenty that appeared to show slight indents in some Astros’ jerseys, as if there were a wire or Band-Aid or device underneath, the belief being that Houston players were buzzed just before the pitch to alert which pitch was coming. (It’s no more outrageous than banging to signal a curveball.)
Did they do this? Who knows. MLB said it investigated whether the Astros had use electric devices like this, but could not find evidence to confirm it. Enter Longoria, who retweeted the following, perhaps the evidence he needed.
On top of the adrenaline pumping and telling ur teammates not to rip your jersey off, your the first one to go into the clubhouse while everyone else celebrates on the field and puts the shirt on over the jersey? Jose Altuve clearly has wires under his jersey. pic.twitter.com/Gb1JNJqc3A
— James (@JamesZeht) January 16, 2020
Jose Altuve has been at the center of the suspicions because of that home run, in which he clearly did not want his jersey ripped off:
It makes a lot more sense why Jose Altuve didn’t want his teammates to rip his jersey off after he hit walk-off HR to win the pennant ??? pic.twitter.com/VTW3WbmNQ2
— Kent (@RealKentMurphy) January 16, 2020
And then the third baseman’s frustration:
What happened to the term “cheaters never prosper”?
— Evan Longoria (@Evan3Longoria) January 16, 2020
It’s a shame the Giants and Astros don’t play this season.