Ex-Houston Astros beat writer discusses discovery of the 2017 sign-stealing scandal: "A garbage can and a wall on the right with wires hanging down"

The Houston Astros won the World Series in 2017, but became the most hated team in recent sports history just a few years later because of it. It was revealed that they had been using a very intricate and technological method to steal signs from the opposing pitchers.

There were a lot of people involved with breaking the story, and one of them was Evan Drellich, who wrote a book about the story called Winning Fixes Everything.

He spoke with the Houston Chronicle about the story.

Drellich revealed that he had seen the evidence of the cheating himself:

"I just walked over to the home dugout and into the tunnel... There was a garbage can and there was a wall on the right with wires hanging down where you could imagine a monitor had once been. 13 months later, we were able to get a story done."

He was asked why it took so long for the story to finally break:

"There were a lot of things that added up to why the story took so long as it did. Number one, it's a really difficult story to get done. You want to make sure you have enough sources... I knew the Astros would probably attack me. They would paint me as the ex-Astros beat writer covering the Red Sox who's just trying to stir it up with the Astros... I knew I needed more."

This is one of the biggest stories in sports history and those responsible for reporting it had to be exceptionally thorough. That's largely why it took so long for the story to come out even though they had proof for a lot longer.

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What happened to the Houston Astros for cheating?

As a result of the sign-stealing scandal, the Houston Astros' players came clean to commissioner Rob Manfred and got immunity. The team, however, did not.

Many fans do not like the Houston Astros

Both GM Jeff Luhnow and manager AJ Hinch were fired. The Astros were also fined $5 million and lost draft picks. As a result of their role, everyone involved was labelled a villain by the MLB fandom and will likely never shed that reputation.