Stealing Signs?

There's a brouhaha about the Blue Jays stealing signs in the Rogers Centre (nee Skydome) early in 2010.

Though the Sports Illustrated report online and in their magazine didn't specify which team the relievers who verbally confronted Jose Bautista in a 2010 spring game were from, further research indicates it was the White Sox.

Now that surprises me, given that Ozzie Guillen is their manager. Given Guillen's mouthpiece, Twittering ways, wouldn't he have said something about his suspicions/these allegations if he had seen them? Does the code run that deep? Is it so other teams will also have to contend with it?

The article claims that these relievers had seen this in their last series with Toronto in 2009, but had let it go. Again, research says that was in May 2009. Will have to look into that.

Boston announcer Jerry Remy suggested shenanigans in June 2010 (or 2009?)...

Anyway, I've now viewed both the full and condensed games of the first three Blue Jays home games in 2010, coincidentally against the very same White Sox.

After the home opener, the games were pretty sparsely attended (12,167 in the second game after 46,000+ in the first, and according to the Sox announcers, smaller still the third), and though I've seen no smoking gun yet, there is definitely a person in white who kind of sticks out in the (non) crowd.

Additional research surfaced a video of Bautista and White Sox pitcher John Danks jawing after an infield pop-up in 2010, so I wonder if this was related...Danks was the starter in the third game, which I'm now in the midst of watching in its entirety. If I don't find anything, there was probably only one other time the White Sox visited Toronto in 2010.

[actually, there were none]

One bit of trivia is that for the third game of the set, Bautista hit lead-off, and was stuck at .161 with 1 home run and 4 rbi after 8 games...he drew a four-pitch walk against Danks to lead off the game to raise his on base percentage to .341 at least.

Okay, that's interesting. With one out in the bottom of the first, and Bautista on first, Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski starts running through multiple signs, and the announcers opine that that usually means they suspect the other team of "getting some signs."

They go on to talk more about it, so presumably the suspicion was surfaced in the first or second game of the series.

In the bottom of the third, with no outs and nobody on base, Pierzynski is still flashing multiple signs to Danks.

Bautista, in his second plate appearance, beats a 1-1 pitch into the turf and Danks makes a nice play to get off the mound and throw him out from near the third base line. Blue Jays with no hits through three.

Now no hits through four and trailing 7-0, Brandon Morrow having been knocked out.

The first hit for the Blue Jays comes with one out in the fifth, courtesy of Randy Ruiz ("one of the four strongest guys in the majors" according to one announcer, but where is he now?).

After Ruiz stole second (his first of the year, and the Sox weren't holding him on), Bautista singled sharply to left on a 1-1 pitch to drive him in.

Bottom of the 6th, now 11-1 White Sox.

Here's one interesting thing I'm noticing while watching this third game...there are no shots (at least on the White Sox broadcast) from directly behind home plate, facing the pitcher.

Will have to check the Jays' broadcast to see. [nope, nothing]

Now, it also occurs to me that the jawing that Bautista and the White Sox relievers engaged in, concerning as it did Bautista's hitting of home runs, probably came later in the spring, as he only had the one so far in 2010 and was scuffling at the plate. [nope, it was in the third game of this set]

Will have to look at the next series that the Sox came to town. [they didn't]

In Bautista's fourth plate appearance he struck out looking against reliever Tony Pena, fooled on a slider, and the final was 11-1 White Sox, Danks and Pena combining on a 2-hitter.

The next game I'm investigating is one against the Orioles in late 2009. Bautista had 7 home runs and was batting lead-off. Okay, nothing much there, though there are a few people dressed in white in the stands above and toward centre from the visitor's bullpen.

Let's check the White Sox's four-game visit to Toronto in May 2009, the 15th - 18th, a four-game sweep by the Blue Jays.

Nope, nothing.

[Later, after more research]

I pinned it down to the April 13, 2010 game, the third in the series. Ricky Romero was throwing a no-hitter for the Blue Jays for awhile as they built a 4-0 lead against Gavin Floyd.

Bautista was hitting lead-off, was still under .200, and had one home run on the season. Strange that the bullpen instigator would have yelled "it's not so easy to hit home runs when you don't know what's coming!"

He struck out in the bottom of the sixth, then the altercation apparently took place as he took the field in the top of the seventh. But in addition to watching the full and condensed videos of the game, I listened to both teams' broadcasts and there was absolutely no mention of it.

So, not much here, especially since Bautista went on to hit 53 more home runs in 2010, presumably without the help of the man dressed in white.