Around the league, everyone noticed the twitch in Pearce Chiles’ leg. It was odd enough that Chiles, the third-base coach for the Philadelphia Phillies, convulsed only at the team’s home park, Baker Bowl, where he stood in the same spot, atop a puddle in the coach’s box that was there even when it didn’t rain. On Sept. 17, 1900, in the first game of a doubleheader, Cincinnati Reds shortstop Tommy Corcoran tired of the tic and decided to do something about it.

Corcoran scurried toward Chiles and started kicking at the ground, harder and harder, enough that the livid Phillies’ groundskeeper told him to stop. Corcoran didn’t, and eventually he hit paydirt: a wooden box. He pulled the top off it and found a mess of wires. His suspicions were dead-on: Someone in the stadium was stealing opponents’ signals and feeding them to Chiles through electrical pulses into the box. One buzz for a fastball, two jolts for a curveball, three twitches for a changeup. Chiles then verbally fed the pitch to the batter.

This story, told wonderfully by Joe Dittmar in The Baseball Research Journal, resonated on Tuesday, when a New York Times report revealed teams are still engaging in completely ridiculous schemes to try and steal signs. The New York Yankees accused the Boston Red Sox of using an Apple Watch in an attempt to relay pitch calls to runners on second base, which they would pass along to hitters at the plate. Major League Baseball confirmed the Yankees’ findings. Meanwhile, the Red Sox filed a counterclaim with the league accusing the Yankees of using an in-house TV feed to do the same.

The entire charade is patently absurd. Almost every team in baseball blurs the line of cheating on a daily basis, executives, coaches and assorted major league personnel told Yahoo Sports on Tuesday. Devices like cell phones and Apple Watches are not allowed in dugouts … and iPads are, because MLB partnered with Apple to allow them as a replacement for managers’ information-stuffed binders. Meanwhile, teams position replay monitors mere feet outside of the dugout – legally – and can gain every bit the advantage Boston sought.

“Everyone can have a phone or TV right behind the dugout, two steps away,” one general manager said. “And everyone does.”

Third baseman Rafael Devers of the Boston Red Sox reacts to his throw on an infield single by Gary Sanchez of the New York Yankees during the sixth inning of a game at Yankee Stadium on September 3, 2017 in the Bronx borough of New York City. (Getty Images) More

Boston’s greatest crime was the obviousness with which it employed the scheme. Generally speaking, according to sources, if someone on a team’s video staff cracks an opponent’s signals, they are run from the video room to an intermediary in the dugout and forwarded to players on the field. The Red Sox’s crime, according to sources, was sending the decoded material via Wi-Fi rather than vocal cords.

This was particularly stupid because while no rule outlaws sign stealing, the no-technology-in-the-dugout statute is well-known. Nonetheless, sources familiar with the investigation do not expect the penalties on the Red Sox to be harsh. The suggestion they will vacate victories against the Yankees is nonsensical, and the likelihood MLB will dock them draft picks is minimal. The most likely upshot is a fine for the organization, with possible suspensions for those involved in the actual scheme, according to sources.

Some executives fear a slap on the wrist will enable those tempted to go beyond stealing signs. In the aftermath of a St. Louis Cardinals employee stealing information from the Houston Astros’ computerized database, baseball teams are particularly paranoid. One American League executive said his team long “suspected the Yankees and Red Sox” steal signs. Chances are, the Yankees and Red Sox have suspected his team steals signs, too.

It’s almost certain the Red Sox didn’t actually decrypt the Yankees’ signals for an extended period of time. While stealing signs is seen as an art inside the game, the emergence of technology has forced teams to develop multiple sets of signals to employ if one is decoded. One assistant GM said his team uses four or five variations. Another executive said his team changes the sequence of its signals inning by inning.

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