The definitive inside story of the cheating scandal that rocked Major League Baseball

By the fall of 2019, most teams around Major League Baseball suspected that the Houston Astros had been stealing signs for several years. The Astros had won the 2017 World Series and made the playoffs the next two seasons. All the while, opponents felt that Houston’s hitters knew what pitches were coming.

In Cheated, award-winning sports reporter and analyst Andy Martino takes readers behind the scenes and into the heart of the events that shocked the baseball world. With inside access to the people directly involved, Martino not only breaks down exactly what happened and when but reveals the fascinating explanations of why it all came about. The nuance and detail ofthe scandal reads like a true sports whodunnit. How did otherwise good people like Astros’ manager A. J. Hinch, bench coach Alex Cora, and veteran leader Carlos Beltrán find themselves on the wrong side of clear ethical lines? And did they even know when those lines had been crossed?

Martino also explores the colorful history of cheating in baseball, from notorious episodes like the 1919 “Black Sox” scandal all the way to the modern steroid era. But the Astros scandal became one of the most significant that the game has ever seen—its fallout ensnaring many other teams, either as victims, alleged cheaters, or both. The Los Angeles Dodgers felt robbed of a World Series title and fended off accusations about their organization. Same for the New York Yankees. The Boston Red Sox were soon under investigation themselves. The New York Mets lost a promising manager before he had ever managed a game. 

With skillful reporting, Andy Martino, who has broken numerous stories about the Astros and sign-stealing in baseball, fills in all the pieces in a riveting investigative narrative. Cheated is an explosive, electrifying read.