Willie & Me by Dan Gutman Page A

leaned over and looked through the eyepiece. Wow, the thing was powerful . The telescope was pointed at home plate, which just about filled the lens. You could get a really good view from this spot. I felt like I was right on top of the action.
    At this point, I probably should have put two and two together. But I didn’t. Not yet. I figured Durocher just used the telescope to get a better view of the game. But managers don’t watch the game from center field. They sit in the dugout.
    Then I noticed something else. On the desk, right next to the telescope, was a button. It looked sort of like a doorbell.
    Huh! Why would somebody have a doorbell mounted on their desk? That didn’t make any sense.
    I pushed the button. Off in the distance, there was a faint buzz. I pushed the button again. Bzzzz. Every time I pushed the button, the buzzer sounded. I could hear it because the ballpark was deserted. If it was filled up with fans, I never would have been able to hear the buzzer.
    I sat back in Durocher’s chair and slapped my forehead. It didn’t take any genius to figure out what was going on. Leo Durocher had somebody hiding in his office during games, peering through the telescope. They could spy on the opposing catcher’s signs to the pitcher.
    The wires to the buzzer system probably led tothe Giants’ bullpen, which I could see was halfway down the foul line. The guy looking through the telescope could use the buzzer to indicate whether the next pitch was going to be a fastball, a curveball, or whatever. Then, somebody in the bullpen could signal the batter to let him know what pitch was coming next.
    Wow! That guy at the baseball card show who sold us the plaque was right .
    The Giants were cheating.

T HERE ’ S NOTHING WRONG WITH STEALING SIGNS . I T ’ S PERFECTLY legal in baseball. Even in my league in Louisville, we steal signs all the time. Flip always tells us that if we reach second base, we should watch the catcher carefully. If we see how many fingers he’s putting down, and it’s just one for a fastball and two for a curve, we can let our hitter know which pitch is coming next.
    Knowing what the pitcher’s going to throw is a big advantage. I know that I would hit a lot better if I knew in advance whether the pitcher was going to throw me a fastball or a curve.
    Stealing signs is not only legal, it’s a badge of honor if you can pull it off. It’s also one of those things that makes the game so fascinating. The average fan doesn’t even know it’s going on, but the people who understand the game well really get into the scienceof sign stealing. It’s like espionage.
    But it’s one thing to steal signs with your naked eye. It’s another to hide a telescope in the outfield and relay the stolen signs using an electric buzzer system. I’m pretty sure that’s against the rules. It’s also just not fair, because only the home team is able to take advantage of it.
    My mind was racing. As I sat there in Leo Durocher’s leather chair, I realized that this changed everything .
    Poor Ralph Branca had to live his whole life as baseball’s biggest goat because he threw the pitch that Thomson hit for the Shot Heard Round the World. But now I knew the truth. Bobby Thomson probably knew in advance which pitch was coming. If the Giants hadn’t been stealing signs illegally, he never would have hit that home run.
    Heck, if the Giants hadn’t been stealing signs illegally, there might never have been a playoff in the first place. They never would have come from behind and caught up with the Dodgers during the last weeks of the season. Most likely, they won at least some of those games in the final days of the pennant race because they cheated.
    My plan had been just to watch the game as a spectator, but not anymore.
    I felt like I had to do something to make things right. I had to help Branca and the Dodgers. I could right a wrong.