The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-03-26
Signals All Important to PEN
nant Chasers.
Catcher Bears the Brunt of
Baseball Battles.
HOW THE CODES WORK
Often the Manager Plays an
Unseen Hand.
Three Separate Systems In Use
in Every Game.
HOW THE CODES WORK

This Is the time when every manager
of professional baseball team in the
country begins to worry about the sys-
tenn. of signals he intends to use during
the coming season. Upon the success or
failure of the system he puts into use
depends considerable of the success or
failure of his team. A well-planned and
well-carried-out signal system means
victory in the close games where inside
play must be relied upon to produce
that one run the pitchers are fighting so
hard to prevent. A bungling system
means the loss of such games to an al
most absolute certainty. .st
According to such old-time experts as
Jimmy McAleer, John McCloskey and
Jack OfConnor. signals as used at pres
ent are one Of the real big improve
ments that have been made in the game
in recent years. Signals to indicate
plays have been used for a number of
years, but they were of the disconnected
kind and used mainly by players who
batted before or behind each other
There was no such thing as a weII-con-
nected system to indicate either fielding
or batting plays. or one by which the
manager was in almost perfect COM
mand of his men on the field during the
game without saying a word. Signals
by the catcher and pitcher we're better
understood, and they have been used
almost since the sport was first well or
gained Before the catLner came up
behind the bat they were not of so much
utility, but since then catching without
signals has been a practical impossible
ity.
One fact alone will show how import
ant signals are in the game as played
today. Success in the game today de-
pencs largely upon ability to do what
the other team is not expecting This
latter, in turn, is almost entirely de-
pendent upon the use of signals Should
a batter pull off any play out of the
routine order with a man on base un-
less he had previously given a signal, or
one has been given for the play, it
would fail to a certainty. Should team
on the defensive try to pull off an inside
play without a signal the same thing
would happen. Take the simple illus
tration of trying to catch a runner nan
ping of a base. Failure to understand
signals or crossed signals mean a throw
to an uncovered position and an error
which can not fail to prove costly. An
other thing in this connection is the
possibility of another team guessing
the signals in use. Should such a thing
happen team Is doomed to almost GER
tain defeat, and hence the trouble
which has occurred over the tipping off
of signals and the use of "buzzers'' in
one or two parks.
There are three separate systems of
signals in use in every game. The first
is that between the catcher and pitcher
regarding the kind of balls to be pitch
ed, and the inf1elderS are interested in
this also. Upon the kind of a pitch
signaled for depends the placing of the
flelders to a certain extent, as certain
hits are always more liable to follow
certain deliveries. The infelders are
also interested in the pitching signals
SIS It is through these they catch run
ners mapping or trying to steal The