Takeaways from Alex Anthopoulos' press conference (which can be found on
Sportsnet's site, in the video called "Anthopoulos fired up") on this oh-so-stimulating topic, for anyone who still (ever?) cares:
1) He still likes ESPN and doesn't blame them for running with the story that presented itself to them but wishes they had done more research / digging. Specifically:
2) When contacted for a quote for the story, he asked (challenged?) them to find any former Blue Jay - player, coach, groundskeeper,
anyone - to corroborate the story. They either did not or could not do so. He went back to this point multiple times in his answers, saying that baseball is a "small family" and implying that, if this really was going on, ESPN should not have had a hard time finding more than four guys on one team willing to complain about it.
3) Similarly, he pointed out the Sportsnet televises all 162 Blue Jays games and, really, if this is a real thing, why hasn't someone taken the time to watch the footage from all those cameras and find the man in the white shirt?
3) He said that he has never once been spoken to about any sort of sign stealing by any other coach, manager or GM on any occasion, either by text, phone or in person at GM meetings.
4) He said that he has not been contacted by the league about this in any way and does not expect there to be any investigation into it. He also said
he has no intention of investigating it, is not going to ask Bautista which bullpen members yelled at him (FYI: Bautista has since been quoted as saying it was the White Sox), etc. He said he considers this a complete non-story for everyone except members of the media, believes the league feels the same way, and thinks having to hold a press conference about it was a ridiculous waste of time.
All of that, of course, comes with the significant caveat that Anthopoulos, like the rest of the Blue Jays, have significant incentive to downplay/lie about stealing signs in this way. And with the actual source of the story being players who would only speak anonymously, this is likely to go into the history books as an unsolved he-said-she-said argument that no one will remember next week.
For my own opinion (for whatever it's worth), I'm quite sure the Jays do engage in attempts on-field sign stealing. Every team does bush league crap like that, though, whether it's sign stealing, glove slapping, or whatever else. It's just the way the game is played when it's being played for millions of dollars and every little advantage counts. I don't believe the Jays are or have been engaging in any systematic off-the-field sign stealing, though. Maybe they tried that one day against Chicago, but even if so, they clearly got caught and called on it and I don't think there's evidence (so far) that they've been finding other ways to do it since.
- Ash