Erik Williams-USA TODAY Sports
The largest sign-stealing scandal in the history of baseball, a game that for more than a century treated the dark arts of cheating with a wink and nod, began with Major League Baseball embracing technology.
In 2014 MLB adopted a challenge-based replay system that put live television monitors close to dugouts. If Pandora’s Box unintentionally opened then, commissioner Rob Manfred, in the most severe action of his five-year term, attempted to slam it shut Monday by imposing massive precedent-setting penalties against the Houston Astros for their misuse of technology in 2017 and 2018.