Former pitcher’s lawsuit rooted in anger
Bolsinger can’t get over players’ attitude when confronted about sign stealing
Former major league pitcher Mike Bolsinger still works out five days a week at his home in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, keeping in shape for another chance to play baseball, another opportunity to redeem the career that he believes was stolen from him by the Astros.
Bolsinger, 32, filed suit in Los Angeles Superior Court on Monday against the Astros, accusing the team of negligence and unfair business practices by using electronics to steal signs during his outing for the Toronto Blue Jays against Houston on Aug. 4, 2017, at Minute Maid Park.
Bolsinger gave up four runs with four walks in one-third of an inning during a 16-7 Astros victory and was taken off the Blue Jays’ 40-man roster the next day, the first step in heading back to the minors. He pitched in Japan for two seasons but has not been able to sign with another major league team since the day the Astros stole his signs and wrecked his career.
If his is the public face of the Astros’ cheating scandal, it’s a face of anger, embarrassment, hard times, lost dreams and determination that no one else should be subjected to such blatant wrongdoing in the name of sports.
“It’s anger, especially when you go back (and look) at the video of them being accused and kind of jokingly laughing about it,” Bolsinger said in a telephone conversation Monday. “That’s what you gets you the most — the lying to everyone, knowing that they were doing something. That’s what angers me the most about the whole thing.”
Bolsinger’s lawsuit seeks the return of $31.5 million in bonuses awarded to the Astros after winning the 2017 World Series for use as charitable grants to youth baseball development.
Through his attorney, Ben Meiselas of the Los Angeles law firm Geragos & Geragos, he also seeks damages against the Astros that could run into the tens of millions of dollars, based on the 18 percent hike in the Astros’ net value after their World Series triumph.
Born in Chicago, Bolsinger grew up as a Cubs fan before his family moved to McKinney, 33 miles north of Dallas, where he played for McKinney North High
School and competed against a team that included Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw.
He played at the University of Arkansas, where his teammates included former Astros pitcher Dallas Keuchel, before he was drafted in 2010 by the Diamondbacks. His best season was 2015, when he was 6-6 as a starter for the Dodgers, who traded him in 2017 to the Blue Jays.
Bolsinger was 0-3 in 10 appearances for Toronto before entering the Aug. 4 game against the Astros. Houston led 3-2 before scoring nine runs in the bottom of the fourth against three Blue Jays pitchers.
Facing eight batters, Bolsinger allowed three walks, a homer by Marwin Gonzalez, a double by Carlos Beltran and RBI singles by Tyler White and Jake Marisnick before retiring Alex Bregman to end the inning.
He threw 29 pitches, and 12 were preceded by audible bangs on the trash can that the Astros used to signal batters that a breaking pitch or off-speed pitch was on the way, according to an analysis by Astros fan Tony Adams, who charted his findings at www.signstealingscandal.com.
“To look back on it now ticks me off even more,” Bolsinger said. “I am a deceptive pitcher. That is how I pitch, and if I can’t do that, if somebody knows what is coming, it changes the game completely.
“At the moment, I was thinking, ‘What do I have to do to get these guys out?’ I thought they were the best team I had played against. I looked at video to see what I had done wrong with my arm angle or my release, and I couldn’t figure it out at the time.”
After being designated for assignment the day after his outing in Houston, Bolsinger signed with the Chiba Lotte Marines in Japan.
He traveled to Chiba City, located on the south coast of Japan’s largest island, at a time when his wife, Lauren, was pregnant with their first child.
“It’s scary enough to have a kid, but to have your first kid in a country where not a lot of people speak the same language, that’s a little more scary,” he said. “I was worried what would happen if she went into labor in the middle of the night. They took care of us, but it was hard.”
Back in suburban Carrollton after two years playing in Japan, he pitches at local high schools to stay in shape in hopes of another opportunity.
His son, Luke, who is 19 months old, likes to throw the ball, too.
“There’s a few dents in my wall,” Bolsinger said, laughing. “He likes to throw it around. I tried to make him into a lefthander, but it doesn’t look like that is going to work out.”
He said he decided to file suit in the wake of what he considered the light punishments handed down by Major League Baseball, which granted players immunity in return for testimony and limited its sanctions to a $5 million fine against the Astros, forfeited draft picks and year-long suspensions for manager A.J. Hinch and general manager Jeff Luhnow, both of whom were subsequently fired by owner Jim Crane.
“We were all surprised by the initial punishment,” Bolsinger said. “Let’s face it, those guys who were suspended will get jobs again. That’s how it is. Welcome to the real world.”
He has not heard from Keuchel, his former college teammate, since news broke of the impact of the Astros’ scheme against his career, and he doesn’t think that apologies from anyone associated with the Astros will suffice.
“I don’t think apologies are enough,” he said. “If that were the case, Pete Rose would be in the Hall of Fame by now. No, I don’t think that is sufficient.”
All Bolsinger wanted out of baseball, he said, was a chance to determine his own fate on the mound.
“That day, I don’t think I was the one deciding my fate,” he said. “Somebody knew what was coming out of my hand before I threw the ball. I don’t want this to get swept under the rug, and it looked like things might be going that way. I don’t want the next generation of baseball players to think that cheating is OK, or else the saying ‘If you ain’t cheating, you ain’t trying,’ will be true.”