The Phillies never were, and they apparently felt emboldened. That Sept. 26 in Brooklyn, Hanlon accused them of stealing signs. Murphy, he said, was positioned on an upper floor of a building just beyond Ebbets Field’s center-field wall. He was equipped with “a $75 eyeglass … so powerful it can see an eyelash at 250 yards.” Phillies batters were signaled by a waving newspaper.