The Houston Astros are entangled in a cheating scandal for stealing the opposing team’s pitching signs during the 2017 season in which the Astros won the World Series. As a result, managers, coaches, and general managers who were with the Astros at the time have been fired by their current teams. Now one of the pitchers who was on the other side of the cheating has sued the Houston Astros in an extremely unique lawsuit.
Mike Bolsinger is a former Major League Baseball relief pitcher and he claims through this lawsuit that the Houston Astros’ cheating has ruined his pitching career. Bolsinger was a pitcher on the Toronto Blue Jays, who played in Houston on August 4, 2017. Bolsinger alleges that the Astros illegally stole signs off him and his catcher by filming them and relaying the pitches to batters via a “banging” sound from the dugout. Bolsinger gave up 4 hits, 3 walks and 4 earned runs in the 0.1 innings that game against the cheating Astros. He alleges that one very bad inning could be catastrophic for a “journeyman pitcher” like himself and that the cheating caused such a disastrous inning and the rapid downfall of his career.
He claims that as a result of what clearly was a terrible day, he was cut by the Blue Jays and was unable to sign with any other team. He eventually pitched in Japan for the last two seasons. He is asking for the Astros to pay for the damages that he suffered and wants the team to surrender $31 million of World Series bonuses to charity.
You can read more about the case here.
