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Stealing signs: fair or foul? Baseball's on-field intelligence gathering has been going on since the early years of the major leagues - decrypting signals given by coaches and managers

Baseball Digest, August, 2002 by Greg Couch

IN BASEBALL, THERE IS THE OFFICIAL rulebook, which teaches kids how to play. And there is the unofficial, unwritten rulebook, stored in players' heads and psyches, with boundaries determined only when crossed.

How do you know when you've crossed an imaginary line and broken an unwritten rule?

You just know, that's how. If not, a 90 mph fastball directed at your head serves as enforcement.

And there is one more rule in baseball: The unwritten is always more important than the written.

These things played into the early season flap involving Sammy Sosa, accused by St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Matt Morris, pitching coach Dave Duncan and manager Tony La Russa of stealing signs in a game last May. The Cubs allegedly were figuring out the location of the pitches Morris was going to throw and relaying the information to Sosa.

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So Sosa was accused of cheating, even though the rulebook only prohibits signs being stolen by electronic means. And if that's the official rule, the unwritten part is this: It is OK to steal signs by other means.

Otherwise, why not ban all forms of sign-stealing?

"To be honest with you," former Cy Young Award winner Steve Stone said, "sign-stealing used to be much more of an art than it is now. But as long as you are not stealing signs from the scoreboard, using a camera or something, then you are stealing legitimately."

Part of baseball's code says if Sosa was stealing signs, there was nothing wrong with it. Yet, he felt he had to deny it. In theory, sign-stealing was invented the day after signs were accepted into the fabric of the game. There is a saying in baseball that if you aren't cheating, you aren't trying.

Former players and managers laughed at the Sosa controversy, saying sign-stealing was common and accepted.

"The 1984 (division-winning) Cubs were as good a team as I saw doing that," Stone said. "When I was with the 1971 Giants, we were the best team I'd ever seen at the time. We had a coach, Wes Westrum, he was sensational at it. Within three innings, he would have all the pitches down. The idea that sign-stealing was just invented, that it was just discovered by Matt Morris and that it outraged La Russa, is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard.

"Everybody steals signs. For years in baseball, they've been corking bats, trying to break up double plays with leg whips, using phantom tags. Pitchers have been standing in front of the rubber three or four inches to get an advantage. And Morris and La Russa are just discovering it now?"

But former New York Yankees and Arizona Diamondbacks manager Buck Showalter, now an analyst on ESPN, lamented that sign-stealing is becoming less prevelant.

Free agency, he said, keeps players from sticking together over the years, and building the camaraderie needed for a good, healthy sign-stealing scheme.

"I don't really have a problem with stealing signs," Showalter said. "The important thing is that there are ways to keep it from happening to you.

"I don't understand how somebody gets upset about it. It's not shame on them for stealing, but shame on you for allowing it to happen. A lot of times, paranoia sets in. You see guys who aren't very good but are taking good swings at breaking balls for a whole series, and you start to wonder what he knows.

"I will say, though, that if Duncan and La Russa thought it was happening, then I would consider that it probably was."

So Showalter thinks Sosa was cheating?

"No," he said. "I did it when I was a player in Double-A, too. I didn't think I was cheating. I thought I was helping my team win."

Showalter talked about the subject with ESPN partner Harold Reynolds. And Reynolds, a former major leaguer, gave a demonstration on the way he used to steal signs for pitch and location.

Reynolds said he would be on second base, studying the opponent's catcher. He would casually put his hand on top of his helmet to alert the batter that he had figured out the signs. Then, if he started his leadoff by walking off the base with his right foot, that meant a fastball was coming. Left foot meant curveball. Shuffling feet meant he wasn't sure. He would let his fight arm dangle away from his body if the pitcher was throwing to the fight side of the plate, and his left hand for the left side.

"I think it's OK," Reynolds said, "if you can do it."

It has gone on forever. And it is so accepted that even Major League Baseball's former cop, Montreal Expos manager Frank Robinson, told the Miami Herald: "There's nothing wrong with trying to find an edge. That's smart. That's not cheating."

Last year, the Wall Street Journal reported that the 1951 New York Giants made their miracle comeback from 13 and a half games behind the Brooklyn Dodgers with an elaborate sign-stealing scheme that involved telescopes in the scoreboard and a system of bells and buzzers.

Former Cubs catcher Randy Hundley said last year he didn't see what the fuss was about. In 1971, he said, the Cubs were losing big to Cincinnati when, from the bench, Hundley noticed something about Reds catcher Johnny Bench.

Stealing signs: fair or foul? Baseball's on-field intelligence gathering has been going on since the early years of the major leagues - decrypting signals given by coaches and managers

Baseball Digest, August, 2002 by Greg Couch

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