Bill -- glad you are with us!
Stealing signs is part of baseball and always will be. Billy Martin was a great sign-stealer! But using anything other than your god-given ability to steal signs is terrible and every single Astro or Red Sox player who benefitted individually from the sign-stealing should be punished in some way, IMO. From a team perspective, the titles are tainted but they can't be given to another club because the other American League beaten by the Astros and Red Sox in the playoffs could say that they were better than the National League (I think the Dodgers in both years) representative. So maybe just vacate the titles in 2017 and 2018.
A funny story about signs. I was a catcher when I played baseball. I couldn't flash the signs fast enough with my fingers so I'd nod to the right for a fastball, nod to the left for a curve, and look straight ahead for a change-up. That worked well in HS because no pitcher we had threw anything else. It also worked pretty well in college. I'd touch my chest protector or shin guard along with a left/right nod for a pitcher with a slider, forkball, knuckleball, etc. I would also flash a number with my fingers as a complete decoy. So things went well in college, too.
But playing for my home town in a summer league, I had an veteran pitcher (34-38, I guess) who had 5 pitches. Fastball, curve, slider, change, and an occasional knuckleball. I regularly got pissed with him because he would call off my signs. That was a no-no for me -- even for a veteran pitcher. So I'm 20 and in my third year with my home town team and we were playing a huge rival -- a team from a town 4 miles away. The score was close in the late innings and we were leading but the other team had a man on second base. Their best hitter was at the plate when my pitcher called me to come to the mound. He was concerned that my fake finger signs would somehow tip the runner on 2nd base and he'd relay the sign to the batter. I said that's bullshit and told him not to be so paranoid. So we continued as normal and the first 2 pitches were swinging strikes on curveballs. He called me to the mound again still worried that somehow the man on 2nd base was stealing my FAKE fingers signs. I assured him that wasn't the case. I get back behind the plate and I call for a fastball and flash 2 fingers. He calls me off. I call for another fastball and flash 1 finger, then 2. He calls me off again. This happened 2 more times and I was fuming. So after about the 5th time call for a fastball, I changed my fake finger sign to just giving him the finger. When he saw that he started laughing, laughing so hard that the ball fell out of his hand, hit his foot and rolled about 10 feet away from the mound. The runner on 2nd easily ran to third before my pitcher retrieved the ball and we called time out. Our manager ran out to the mound and asked what was so damn funny and why the hell did he drop the ball and let the runner get to third base. My pitcher gave the manager a quick recap of the signs, thought for a few seconds before asking the pitcher "Well, if you don't understand that sign, I'll get someone in who does understand it." The fastball was thrown and the batter flied out easily. We held on to win the game. That was the only time I ever gave my pitchers the finger for a sign.
John