Sports

METS LOOK AT FOOTBALL FOLLIES

There is no crying in baseball, but there is spying. The NFL is up in arms over the Patriots’ spying scandal against the Jets, but stealing signs and everything else is a way of life in baseball.

The Mets were getting a chuckle out of SnoopGate before tonight’s game against the Braves at Shea Stadium.

“Just change the signs if they are stealing it,’’ noted catcher Sandy Alomar Jr., who is in his 20th season in the majors. “In baseball we deal with that stuff every day. They’re always trying to steal my signs when I’m catching. Coaches are way out of the box. If they steal my signs to try to get a slower pitcher to steal on, what am I going to say, ‘Go back.’

“Stealing signs is not cheating, it’s part of the game,’’ Alomar Jr. said. “It’s taking advantage of somebody else’s weakness. And even if you steal a sign, you still have to execute. The reality is that when you are on the field of battle, anything is valid. But if they sent someone to video a practice, that’s a different story. But on the field of battle, anything is valid.’’

Third base coach Sandy Alomar Sr. is in his 48th season of pro ball. He has spent many of those years coaching third and trying to keep the other team from stealing his signs.

He said he believes he has had a camera trained on him while giving signs by some teams.

“But I can’t prove it,’’ he said. “You just have to be protective of your signs. There’s always a way to play with them, change things up, maybe change the indicator or don’t use an indicator sometimes. Sometimes you go first to last or last to second. In football, there is so much to learn it might be almost impossible to change during a game.

“In baseball we can change during the course of the game.’’

If you think someone is stealing your signs, you can always talk to your player or give a set of false signs and tell your player not to react to the signs.

Sandy’s other baseball son Roberto was always good at stealing signs. Players also communicate with one another. Alex Rodriguez stayed in touch with Roberto to get a read on what was happening around baseball. It’s called networking. It’s all about getting an advantage.

The whole idea of getting locked in on a pitcher who is tipping his pitches is so the hitter can eliminate pitches and look for a certain pitch and stay away from the nastiest of pitches.

In some ways, video has hampered the way players learn the game, Alomar Sr. said, because in the past, players would have to learn by watching and be focused on the moment. Today players don’t have to pay as close attention because they can always go back into the clubhouse and watch video in this YouTube Age.

Jeff Conine brought up an interesting point saying of the Patriots video espionage, “What’s the difference between taping or just watching and taking notes?’’ he said. “And if you think the other team has your signs, just change them.’’

One Mets insider said the secret to stealing another team’s signs is to find the one player on an opposing team who has trouble reading the signs. Study the coach when that player is at bat and you can pick off signs.

“There’s a lot of things that go on that are against the rules, but they go on,’’ reliever Scott Schoeneweis said.

Hitters love the fact that the radar gun is now found in every ballpark. It’s a good way for them to get a read on the pitcher. Sandy Jr. said during his years in Chicago with the White Sox they were often accused of having a special camera located in the ballpark that was used to steal the opponent’s signs.

That wasn’t the case, Sandy Jr. explained. He said they simply had an unnamed coach who was “really good’’ at reading pitchers and looking at video and he would relay that information to the players.

“But you don’t want to depend on that,’’ he said.

Still, it can’t hurt.