A study of stealing signs

Stealing signs in baseball, commissioner Bud Selig says, “has been around for 100 years.” Yet it’s an accepted practice only if you don’t get caught.

The Rockies complained last week that Phillies bullpen coach Mick Billmeyer was peering at their catcher’s signs from 400 feet away with the help of binoculars. What he was doing with the information was unknown, but it’s not the first time the Phillies have been accused of stealing signs in recent years.

Selig, speaking after the owners’ meetings Thursday, promised to have his staff look into the complaint.

But if you watch any major-league game closely enough, you don’t need binoculars to see evidence of players either stealing signs or defending their signs. You just need to be observant, and know what to look for.

An insider’s guide to stealing signs, based on interviews with former major-leaguers who did not want to be identified because, as one said, “It’s a taboo subject.”

The Peek

One of the biggest pet peeves among catchers is when they sense that the hitter is peeking when he’s putting down the sign or trying to see which side of the plate he’s setting up at.

When television cameras zoom in on a catcher, you’ll often see him look up at the hitter before putting down the sign as a first measure of defense. If he still believes the hitter is peeking, the catcher has been known to warn the hitter verbally. The last line of defense, of course, is to brush back the hitter.

Catchers also have to keep an eye on the first- and third-base coaches. Yankees manager Joe Girardi yelled at Red Sox first-base coach Tim Bogar from the dugout earlier this month, accusing him of trying to steal signs.

Players say the best way for a catcher to guard against this is by not being lazy — he has to make sure his legs are tight and his signs are not too low — because it’s not as if either base-line coach has the greatest view.

Stealing sings at second base

When a runner reaches second base, the first thing the pitcher and catcher do is switch from using one sign — one finger for fastball, two for curveball, etc. — to a multiple-sign sequence.

That means that a catcher will put down separate signs, one after another, with only one of them being the real sign, of course. One common multiple-sign sequence, according to a player, is “outs plus one.” So with nobody out, the first sign represents the pitch he is calling for. With one out, it’s the second sign. And so on.

Most people in the game believe it’s rare that runners on second actually read signs and relay them because of the high risk involved. If you tell a hitter a fastball is coming and instead it’s a curveball — or vice versa — the hitter is going to look awfully silly.

Guarding against the runner at second

The biggest thing pitchers and catchers guard against is when the runner on second watches where the catcher sets up and relays that information to the hitter. They do this a number of ways — if the catcher is setting up inside, the runner will touch his right hip, knee or earflap. And vice versa.

Last September, a fan took a video of Joe Mauer standing off second base appearing to signal pitch location by way of touching his right earflap, an accusation that the Twins’ catcher denied. But people in the game say this happens all the time.

Catchers guard against this practice by waiting until the last second to set up where they want the pitch, sometimes waiting until the pitcher already has begun his motion. When pitchers sense the runner on second is tipping location, he often fakes a throw to second to make the runner scurry back. When you see the pitcher step off and fake a throw several times in a row, typically this is the reason why.

The home-field advantage

The old Comiskey Park was known for having a light in centerfield that teams believed flashed whenever the catcher called for a fastball, thus giving the White Sox hitter a heads-up.

At least one team believed the practice still took place at White Sox home games in their new park as recently as a few years ago; to counteract it, this team, according to a player, used a multiple-sign sequence for all games in Chicago, even with the bases empty.

Similar accusations have been made in recent years about a number of stadiums, including those in Cleveland and Texas, but instances in which this has been proven are hard to find.