In an excerpt from the documentary “The Astros Edge: Triumph and Scandal in Major League Baseball,” Antonio Padilla, then a video and advance information manager for the Houston Astros, describes receiving an unusual request to put a TV monitor below the dugouts roughly two months into the 2017 MLB season.
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The request came, Padilla says, from Alex Cora, then a bench coach for the Astros. Speaking out for the first time in the FRONTLINE documentary “The Astros Edge: Triumph and Scandal in Major League Baseball,” Padilla says he initially thought the monitor would be used to see when innings were over or who was batting. But in truth, the monitor was a critical component of an illegal sign-stealing scheme that would become one of the most explosive scandals in modern baseball history.
“They would look at the TV monitor and then be able to see the signs of the catcher and then have some type of audible sound, or a bang on something, to relay that to the hitter — what type of pitch was coming,†Padilla says in the above excerpt from the documentary. “I mean instantly I knew it wasn’t right, but what was I gonna do? I was the lowest guy on the totem pole there. You know, if the coaches knew and the other players knew, then — you know, I’m just rolling with it.â€
For the full story, watch “The Astros Edge,” premiering on PBS and streaming platforms Oct. 3. — the same date the MLB postseason begins. The documentary goes inside the making of one of the best teams and worst scandals in modern MLB history. Padilla left the Astros after the 2021 season. Cora was eventually suspended for a season stemming from the Astros’ cheating, which Cora apologized for. He and many of the other people involved in the 2017 cheating scandal are still involved in Major League Baseball.
“The Astros Edge” examines how the scandal played out, who was punished – and who wasn’t – and what it all means for the future of the game.
Explore additional reporting related to “The Astros Edge” on our website:
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/documentary/the-astros-edge/
“The Astros Edge†is a FRONTLINE Production with Left/Right Docs. The director, producer and writer is Jonathan Clasberry. The producer is Quinton Boudwin. The producer and correspondent is Ben Reiter. The senior producer is Frank Koughan. The executive producers for Left/Right Docs are Ken Druckerman and Banks Tarver. The editor-in-chief and executive producer of FRONTLINE is Raney Aronson-Rath.
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FRONTLINE is produced at GBH in Boston and is broadcast nationwide on PBS. Funding for FRONTLINE is provided through the support of PBS viewers and by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Additional funding is provided by the Abrams Foundation; Park Foundation; the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation; and the FRONTLINE Journalism Fund with major support from Jon and Jo Ann Hagler on behalf of the Jon L. Hagler Foundation, and additional support from Koo and Patricia Yuen.
Why weren't the Astros title stripped from them???
Seriously. Manfred needs to vacate the Astros* 2017 Championship, especially now with the gambling scandal. Where do you draw the line to protect the integrity of the game?
And none of the players get even a slap on the wrist. Magically less than a year later Cora and Hinch have BOS and DET fall into their laps. The reality of it was that HOU was so good they didnt need to cheat. One consolation was that beginning with opening day the next season all the hitters wore a lot of pitches from opposing pitchers and to their credit they knew what was coming and they stood in the box and took it like rats which they were. It was also a long time before opposing fans stopped heckling and blasting HOU so that was its own form of recompense.
makes me wonder if tha yankees cheated back in the 1990s
George Springer played on this team. Oh, he's also on the Toronto Blue Jays. Cheaters cheat. Cheated the Dodgers out of the World Series win in 2017. Karma.
Interviewer is a creep.
should be banned for life
Why isn’t Mike Fiers sitting beside him
No conscience. He's just as guilty as the rest of them.
This guy was part of the cheating Astros smh
asterisks commissioner Manfred didn't have the balls to do the right thing and strip them of the title
As a born and raise Houstonian, and an Astros fan, I sure hate that this is part of the Astros' legacy. I make no excuses for what they did because it's deplorable. I'm just glad Dusty Baker helped to rebuild the team's legacy.
MARY POPPINS SAYS WHAT 😅😮
Talk about being ungrateful 🤣 he payed off all his debt and kept some Extra money. But now plays the trumpet and sniches on the whole thing.
Stealing signs and baseball go together like PB&J
Can this Padilla guy say one sentence without unnecessarily saying the word "like" 1, 2 or 3 times? Painful to listen to a grown seemingly intelligent man speak like a 10 year old girl from California.
I don't believe a word he's saying. The guy knew exactly what he was getting into frm the very beginning when he installed those TVs. He was motivated by greed for money just like everyone else involved. Look at his shifty eyes as he's talking
No team in history has cheated like the 2017 Astros. The increase in OPS by the Houston Astros from 2016 to 2017: 1B Gurriel .677 -> .817; 2B Altuve .928 -> .957; SS Correa .811 -> .941; 3B Bregman .791 -> .827; LF Gonzalez .694 -> .907; CF Springer .815 -> .889; RF Reddick .749 -> .847; C McCann .748 -> .759. Utility Marisnick .588 – .815 That's an entire lineup with improved OPS from 2016 to 2017. Five of the nine players set career highs that they never topped. It's insane. Nothing like that has ever happened in MLB history. Cheating at such a high level that it isn't even baseball any more. It's some other game.
The worst was in the World Series. Just one example, Kershaw threw 51 off speed pitches and the Astros swung and missed at ZERO of them. Someone ran a computer sim, and the odds of that happening were 128,061 to 1. So it would take 4266 years and it MIGHT happen again. Just absurd – why even play the game.
As more people retire or step away from the game, more confessions will come out. Eventually everyone will know how unclean and corrupt 2017 was.
Win 2 WS and 4 Pennants in 6 years and then start talking Nnumbnutz. Rangers have 0 WS rings
The players voted him a full playoff share and he’s out here fucking snitching. What a rat
No backbone to stand up to what's right? How typical, but now you're online trying to assuage your guilt by bashing everyone else. Typical cheater actions…
Alex Cora I put to blame on that scheme but tbf it was prevalent across the league. As to its advantages, it was laughble. 0.35 advantage at bat at home- that doesnt even change batting averages. 😂 So for me it was more chicken s. Then anything.
Good timing! It makes their 2nd World Series even better. All eyes were on them and yet they still proved people wrong. It was the Astros vs the world and they won.
Didnt realize Vinny froM Jersey Shore worked for the Stros..
Alex Cora should’ve been banned from MLB for life.
Why don’t they make a documentary on the dodgers or even Boston… stop trying to shame Houston. It’s always Houston vs everyone.
This guy…. Now they have iPads they run to … Astros still won in 2017 and 2023! Give us our flowers!!!!! 🤟ðŸ¼ðŸ¤ŸðŸ¼ðŸ¤ŸðŸ¼
Snitch
Hang on. This interview started off by asking Padilla if he went along with a perfectly legal, reasonable-sounding request to stick a new monitor into a space below the bullpen. Nothing inherently wrong with that if it isn't used for cheating, which Padilla had no way of knowing when he installed it.
Toward the end of this interview, though, the interviewer started implying that Padilla was being pressured to do illegal things to earn his playoff share.
That is some big league grasping at straws.
I'm a journalist and I never see myself as an attorney. Frontline, you and your "reporters" are not attorneys. You seem to forget, your job is only to report what happens, not make yourselves part of the story. What a joke.
Truth is all professional sports are rigged and scammed for the dumb fanatics and masses!! Let's not be naive here, drop in a bucket compared to reality!
It was wrong yet I dont get those insiders, whistle blowers. Why did they do it? Now they want to be clear about it? Those ppl who is back stabbing, they will always do that wherever they go. Watch out, deep throat. Total fake, cant be trusted
Yeah. Don’t care
Former video manager.😂😂😂😂
At this point it’s very clear you only can cheat and it be forgotten if it’s done in New York Boston or La
This dudes an absolute worm with no spine
What a cheaters
For Astros fans, the fact that they cheated made the whole WS victory even better.
Y’all still crying about this shit? 😂
Seems like the Astros were vindicated in this. Best team won in 17.
The Astros are still kicking everyone's ass till this very day!🤣🤣🤣🤣
Cheaters.
We were traveling in Texas at the time. I'm a Giants fan so I was having fun telling Texans that I was their newest fan and I'll admit that we were thrilled when the Astros prevailed. However, one of the teams was cheating and the other team showed nothing but class. Within the next day or two the Dodgers took out a full page ad in the Houston Chronicle, congratulating the Astros on winning the World Championship. The Astros kept the money, the WS rings, and the accolades, but they probably should have reimbursed the Dodgers for the cost of the ad.
This is sooo weak!! So unquestionably cowardly.
You know what… bring it on.
Like Trump… you’re setting up the Astros for another win!!
Leftists are idiots.
Sounds like PBS has money to spend on the 2017 Astros cheating scandal??? Like… now? Right when the Astros clinch their AL West Division playoff?? In 2023??
Where does PBS get funding from again???
No one is THIS stupid!
I hope he's at least honest with himself and says I did it for The money when he looks at himself in a mirror
We can thank the Texas Rangers for choking on this division.