It probably felt like a cutting-edge caper at the time: The New York Giants, using an elaborate spyglass-and-buzzer system, would have the opposing team’s signs relayed from their center-field clubhouse at the Polo Grounds to the bullpen and then to the batter, passing along valuable information during the team’s pursuit of the 1951 pennant.
Today, the question is whether there is an app for that.
Stealing signs is as much a part of baseball tradition as stealing bases, but the technology available could open a whole new frontier of competitive sleuthing. The latest flare-up came when a man associated with the Houston Astros was pointing his cellphone into opposing dugouts during playoff games against Cleveland and Boston.
The Astros said they were just trying to defend themselves against any suspicious activity from opponents.
There is clearly plenty of paranoia to go around.
“The game is ultra-competitive and there are such small margins between really good teams and really good players — and there’s a lot at stake,” Houston manager AJ Hinch said before losing to the Red Sox in the American League Championship Series.
The art of sign stealing ranges from the mundane — a baserunner trying to decode the catcher’s signals and let the batter know what is coming — to more complex spying schemes. Even 19th century technology can apparently be useful.
The 1951 Giants famously beat out the Dodgers for the National League pennant on Bobby Thomson’s playoff-winning homer.
A half-century later, New York’s sign-stealing system was laid bare in a Wall Street Journal story that quoted members of that team. The bullpen would receive the signs from the clubhouse via a buzzer system. Catcher Sal Yvars said he relayed them to hitters.
The possibilities for surreptitious surveillance in the present era seem endless.
The Red Sox were fined last year for using an Apple Watch while trying to steal signs from the New York Yankees.
Before this post-season, Major League Baseball said that teams contacted the commissioner’s office about sign stealing and “the inappropriate use of video equipment” — and it was not just one team about which there was concern.
This week’s controversy brought suspicion upon the Astros — and Houston in turn expressed its own suspicions of other teams.
The league essentially agreed with the Astros’ explanation, saying that an investigation of incidents concluded that “an Astros employee was monitoring the field to ensure that the opposing club was not violating any rules.”
Watch any game, and you can find evidence of the lengths to which teams might go if they are worried about who is watching. It is one thing for a catcher to switch to more complex signs to avoid giving away the next pitch to a runner on second — but a team might do that even if the bases are empty.
“We utilize multiple signs with nobody on base. Other teams do that as well,” Hinch said. “We ask a lot out of our catchers. We have 12, 13, sometimes 14 pitchers on a roster that can all have different signs and different sequences.”
For decades, sign stealing was a mysterious, almost charming addition to baseball’s culture, but too much suspicion can certainly hurt the sport.
“I think there is a paranoia about what you’re doing competitively to try to be your best,” Hinch said. “When teams are curious about us or we’re curious about other teams, it’s largely a distraction away from the best part of the game, which is on the field with the players.”
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