Guardian or snitch, depends on the lighting.

Mike Fiers, the 34-year-old journeyman pitcher whose two career complete games are also no-hitters, one of those as a Houston Astro, nearly four weeks ago blew the whistle on a technology-driven, sign-stealing scheme allegedly run by those Astros. Major League Baseball has questioned dozens of potential perpetrators, accomplices and witnesses (including Fiers) in an investigation that threatens to expose the finest era in Astros history as, at best, suspicious.

Fiers pitched for the Astros for 2 1/2 seasons, the last in 2017, during which, he told The Athletic, the team devised and integrated a system that identified catchers’ signs and relayed them to hitters in the batter’s box. The Astros won the World Series. Fiers, whose ERA that season was 5.22 (and nearly 10 in the final two months), was not on the rosters for any of their three postseason series. He was non-tendered a month later. And, he told The Athletic, he spent the next two seasons warning teammates with the Detroit Tigers and Oakland A’s of the Astros’ deviousness.

This October, the Astros returned to the World Series. In November, Fiers went public. The league and the Astros might never be the same. Fiers, too.

So, who is Mike Fiers and why now? Of the dozens of people who would have seen or been aware of (and benefitted from) the illegal setup described by Fiers — a system protected by a code of secrecy that dates to the first locker room — what moved Mike Fiers, and only Mike Fiers, to reveal the scheme, potentially crippling careers and an organization? At risk, too, was Fiers’ place in the fraternity of generations of ballplayers who went along, who shrugged and decided it — whatever that day’s it was — was someone else’s problem. Teammates don’t rat. Teammates are loyal. Even ex-teammates. What happens in the clubhouse — in this case, allegedly, down the hall from the clubhouse — remains forever there. It’s how the game and the people in it have survived each other. Or, perhaps, how we got here.

A call to Fiers’ agent, Bob Garber, brought a promise to ask Fiers if he would discuss the reasons he made his public accusations.

If he would explain why he’d waited two years before doing so. If he’d considered the consequences, both for the Astros and himself. What the reaction of his fellow players has been since. If he would describe what was in his heart and head when he’d chosen this course. If it has played out like he’d hoped. If this was meant to reflect who he is as a man, if he’d stood for the integrity of the game, or if he’d intended to settle a score. If he was proud of what he’d wrought, and all that is to come.

Subsequent phone calls were ignored, however. Follow-up messages went unreturned.

A representative for the Oakland A’s, Fiers’ current team, said he would speak to Fiers. He called back to say Fiers would “pass” on the story.

Hero or snitch, depends on the lighting, and maybe Mike Fiers doesn’t care which.

“Heroic,” said one current American League West player. “Takes big nuts to call bull--- on people and stand there and take the heat that follows. I admire that.”

“Freakin’ punk-ass bitch,” said a former Astro.

“Mike Fiers?” said a current Astro. “Then give back your ring and your World Series share.”

“He did the right thing,” said a player whose team lost to the Astros in the 2017 postseason. “But I don’t think he’s a hero or a villain. I just hope he doesn’t get demonized.”

View photos Mike Fiers pitched for the Houston Astros from 2015-2017. (Juan DeLeon/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) More

The immediate fallout for Fiers appears to be minimal, beyond the news of the investigation and a date with a league investigator. Astros players and management have not publicly challenged his accusations. Opposing players — whether supportive of Fiers or not — have been silent, for the most part. As in the steroid era, omerta comes first, even at the expense of wins and paydays and fairness, and also in the interest of self-preservation. The Astros are not the only team to have tested the boundaries — drawn or assumed — of sign stealing. Public outrage may be cleansing. It also draws unwanted attention. Major League Baseball does seem to be in an investigative mood.

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