Former New Ulmite Jamie Hoffmann played eight seasons with the Los Angeles Dodgers’ organization.

And ‘sign stealing’ was a part of the game.

“As far as players being on the field and if you are on first or second base, you try and look at the catcher’s signs,” he said. “And if you are good enough at picking them up — are able to figure them out — you try and help your teammates.

“You watch the pitcher to see if he has any tendencies to figure out if a fastball or curve is coming.”

But in today’s game, Hoffmann said that technology has taken sign stealing to the next level, per the Houston Astros and Hoffmann’s former Dodgers team.

He said that he was skeptical at first “but when there is smoke, there is fire and in this instance they had a pretty sophisticated system going on to let their hitters know what pitch was coming.”

Hoffmann said that his first thought went to former teammate pitcher Clayton Kershaw, who was beaten by the Astros in Houston this postseason.

“I just felt how unfair it was for him as he had success all year and then he goes against that same team that now knows at home what pitch is coming,” Hoffmann said about the banging of a garbage can to signal the Astros’ hitter as to the pitch.

There were also allegations that Jose Altuve’s grabbing his jersey after a game-winning home run and not wanting it torn off of him led to suggestions of having a wire on him to signal what pitch was coming.

“If they have been proven guilty on something, there is going to be skepticism about everything that happens,” Hoffmann said.

Hoffmann was asked that if he was on a team or was on a team that had bent the rules, he said that he “would have liked to say something or say something early, knowing the rules of baseball. Creating an unfair advantage does not sit too well with me.”