A good documentary will take events that most viewers know and chronicle them in a new light. A new Frontline film does just that, peeling back the layers of a basic story most Americans have heard — the Houston Astros stole signs during their 2017 World Series-winning season — in a way that allows viewers to understand the culture that led to the cheating.
Some might reasonably wonder how a team managed to engage in systemic cheating without anyone finding out. But as “The Astros Edge” explains, the more appropriate question might ask how and why they finally got caught.
Technological Edge
The film, reported by the same writer (Ben Reiter) who correctly predicted in a now-prescient-but-then-controversial May 2014 Sports Illustrated cover story that the Astros would win the 2017 World Series, spends roughly the first half of its 90 minutes focusing on the events that preceded the scandalous season. It tells the story of how a franchise that had become a baseball laughingstock did an about-face that allowed it to become a champion — albeit one that tarnished its own reputation in the process.
Upon taking control of the Astros in 2011, owner Jim Crane handed General Manager Jeff Luhnow the keys to the franchise. Luhnow proceeded first to “tank.” He got rid of old and/or expensive players and made no pretense of fielding a competitive team — at least in the short term. Instead, Luhnow focused on stockpiling draft picks to build the team of the future.
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