There was a tempest in a teapot during Monday’s Yankees-Orioles game. Between innings, Joe Girardi screamed that Oriole third base coach Bobby Dickerson was stealing signs. Buck Showalter screamed back at Girardi so heatedly that umpires had to restrain him. Girardi claimed that Dickerson was stealing pitch signs from Yankee catcher Austin Romine, and signaling them to Oriole hitters. Showalter took umbrage, and the next day, he told ESPN’s Mike Lupica that the Yankees “are actually one of the better teams” at stealing signs. Others don’t think it’s a big deal. Trying to steal signs is fair, Lou Piniella told ESPN in an interview. “It is part of the game,” he said. If another team tries to steal your signs, “You just switch them.”



Sign stealing fascinates me. There is no rule against it, just an unwritten rule. Basically, the expectation is that teams should not try to steal signs, on the honor system. And yet that expectation seems nonsensical at first blush: after all, if you expected the other team not to steal your coded signs, then you wouldn’t need signs in the first place, and you certainly wouldn’t need elaborate fake signs and countersigns to fool the other team. As far as I can tell, the apparent logic works like this: I pledge that I will make a reasonable effort to disguise my communications with my teammates so that you will not be able to intercept those communications without a concerted effort of your own. I expect you to pledge not to intercept those communications. This is, essentially, the logic behind secret service code names for the president and the first family; the names themselves aren’t secret, but they provide a superficial level of secrecy.

The only rules against sign stealing are a 1961 rule that bans the use of a “mechanical device” for the purposes of sign stealing, and then there’s a line from a memo written in 2000 by Sandy Alderson that states that “electronic equipment… may not be used for the purpose of stealing signs or conveying information designed to give a club an advantage.” In 2010, the Philadelphia Phillies were accused of stealing signs after bullpen coach Mick Billmeyer was seen watching Rockies catcher through binoculars, which isn’t prohibited by the rules but is clearly frowned upon. However, the actual advantages of stealing signs are far less clear, as I wrote at the time: