Nothing Remains Hidden
January 16, 2020
Major League Baseball has just completed its investigation into allegations that the Houston Astros stole signs during their 2017 World Series championship season. It found compelling evidence that the Astros designed and executed a scheme using the center field TV camera to steal signs from the opposing team’s catcher, and then relay the sign to the batter by banging on trash cans. Houston batters knew whether the pitcher was about to throw a fastball or curveball. Major League Baseball punished the Astros by suspending its manager, A.J. Hinch, and general manager, Jeff Luhnow, for a year. The Astros went a step further, firing both Hinch and Luhnow.
The bench coach for the Houston Astros in 2017 was Alex Cora, who left the Astros after that season to manage the Boston Red Sox, who won the World Series in 2018. He was the mastermind of the sign-stealing scheme. The Red Sox didn’t wait for MLB to discipline Cora, they fired him as manager the day after the Astros fired Hinch. Carlos Beltran was a member of the Astros in 2017, playing in his final season before retirement. He walked off the field for the last time as a World Series champion, but according to evidence was an active participant in the sign stealing scandal. The New York Mets hired Beltran as their manager this past off-season. Today, less than a month from the start of spring training for the 2020 season, the Mets fired Beltran, before he ever arrived for spring training or managed a game.
How did this scandal leak? Former Astros pitcher Mike Fiers, now pitching for the Oakland Athletics told the details about how the Astros stole signs to a reporter. From there, it was easy to convict the Astros. You can watch videos all over You Tube and hear the banging of the garbage can while the pitcher is in his wind up. It’s yet another black eye for baseball, following the game fixing scandal of the Chicago “Black” Sox in 1919, and the more recent steroid and gambling sagas.
Luke 8:17: “For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open.” Those words prove to be true today in the wake of the sign stealing scandal. I love baseball. It hurts my heart that the allegations against the Astros are true. It’s bad for baseball, and for the people involved. I don’t know if Hinch, Cora or Beltran are Christians, but they didn’t act like Christians here. I believe that these three are just the beginning. Time will tell who else cheated.
We will always face temptation to cut corners, to bend the rules or even break them to gain an advantage. We will only resist temptation by continually “walking in the Spirit.” That means a constant awareness of the presence of the Holy Spirit within us, and consistent submission to His will rather than our own. Hinch, Cora, Beltran and the other Astros gave in to their human desire to win at all costs. They have tainted Houston’s only World Series win forever. Probably not coincidentally, the Astros won all four of their home games against the Yankees in the 2017 World Series. Hinch, Cora and Beltran will wear this shame like a Scarlet letter for the rest of their lives.
Satan loves it when we stumble and fall, especially if we call ourselves Christians. There is no worse witness for Christ than when a man or woman who professes Jesus as Lord and Savior engages in unethical behavior. The press has a field day, and the work of Christ suffers. We’ve all done things that we are ashamed of. It’s part of being sinners. Thank God for Jesus who has paid for our sins. While we live, we don’t want to wear the knowledge of having shamed His name. The damage done to baseball and to the Astros scandal is nothing compared to the spiritual carnage of shaming Jesus’ name. We must constantly be on our guard. Satan prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour (1 Peter 5:8), but greater is He who lives in you than he who lives in the world (1 John 4:4).
