Cheated

The Inside Story of the Astros Scandal and a Colorful History of Sign Stealing

By: Andy Martino

Narrated by: Andy Martino

“A baseball book that reads like a spy novel—a story about cheaters and the cheated that has the power to forever change how we feel about the game.” —Brian Williams, MSNBC anchor and host of The 11th Hour

The definitive insider story of one of the biggest cheating scandals to ever rock Major League Baseball, bringing down high-profile coaches and players, and exposing a long-rumored "sign-stealing" dark side of baseball

The ensuing scandal rivaled that of the 1919 "Black Sox" and the more recent steroid era, and became one of the most significant that the game had ever seen. The fallout ensnared 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 ever managed a game.

Andy Martino, an award-winning journalist who has covered Major League Baseball for more than a decade, has broken numerous stories about the Astros and sign-stealing in baseball. In Cheated, 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 breaks down not only exactly what happened and when, but reveals the fascinating explanations of why it all came about. The nuance and detail of the 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 Beltran find themselves on the wrong side of clear ethical lines? And did they even know when those lines had been crossed? Cheated is an explosive, electrifying read.

Big Deal

I think this whole thing was blown way out of proportion. A bunch of crybabies made it an issue simply because they didn't figure it out first. The MLB has been too vanilla since 2020.

Excellent portrayal

The background and context, along with the balanced, objective description of events, makes this an excellent portrayal of the cheating scandal. Also a good, interesting read that any baseball fan would enjoy.

Balanced Look at Baseball’s Nightmare

Author Andy Martino does not judge the Houston Astros after they stole the 2017 World Series. He simply tells a great story with deep research and superb writing. Martino takes us back 100 years to demonstrate the Astros was not the first, or likely the last team to cheat their way to victory. While some authors are horrible narrators, Martino does a good job telling this amazing story.

Take away the 2017 WS Trophy!!

GREAT book! VERY informative…
It fills-in a lot of blanks.

The Astros need to be stripped of their 2017 WS Champion….PERIOD!!

Details of the scandal

The story was decent.
Recent events in BB that have been hidden from MLB who are trying to make the mess go away.

The narrator had difficulty reading a continuous sentence without breaking it up.
Don’t let that stop you from making the purchase
I’m just relaying what I learned in a semester of public speaking course with a demanding instructor.