From the article:

"An anecdote I want to share in a little more detail was brought back into relevance this week not just because of the Astros fallout but also because an ex-pitcher known as Black Jack McDowell stirred memories of it. McDowell claimed that when he joined the White Sox in 1987, there was a legacy sign-stealing system in place at the old Comiskey Park. He attributed the existence of this system to former Chicago manager Tony LaRussa, whose final season in Chicago was 1986. LaRussa later clapped back, albeit fairly meekly.

It's hard to say what LaRussa might have implemented at Comiskey, but there is no question that a sign-stealing system was in place at the park for decades, according to the guy who instigated it — longtime executive Frank Lane, who once tried to trade Stan Musial away from the Cardinals. In a biography by Bob Vanderberg called "Frantic Frank Lane," Lane said he set up the system in the 1950s based on suggestions from Hall of Famer George Kell, for whom he had traded. Kell had observed a similar system in place at Fenway Park when he played for the Red Sox.

Lane was fed up with being victimized by sign stealers throughout the American League and sought the input of Kell and reserve infielder Bob Kennedy, later a big league manager.

"In '55," Lane said, "we were almost certain they were stealing our signs in Kansas City, Detroit and Cleveland. So I said to George Kell and Bob Kennedy, 'Those sons of b----es are getting our signs.' So either Kell or Kennedy, or both, said, 'Well, why don't we do it?'"

The system used the scoreboard to relay the stolen signals by toggling a one or a zero to indicate pitch type. Lane claimed the system was in place long after he left the team. Elsewhere, legendary groundskeeper George Toma claimed to have overseen a similar plot at Municipal Stadium in Kansas City. (Toma, whom I had the pleasure to know, was one of the all-time great storytellers.)"

Sounds like it was probably pretty rampant at the time. And using a scoreboard to tip off the batter kind of sounds like technology to me. These are first hand accounts. Who knows how many other schemes and tactics were used.

What is apparent is everybody thought everybody else was doing it so, why don't we do it too? Kind of like recent accusations amongst current MLB teams too. All because baseball won't do anything about it. And since they aren't going to punish the players any either, in a year or two this will all blow over and teams/players will be right back to attempting to gain an unfair advantage unless make sign stealing impossible, at least by video.

MLB fans on this site can put their heads in the sand if they want and think that this hasn't been going on for decades, with technology and without. Or they can think that the Astros are the only modern-day perps if they want but it's foolish to do so.