A rich history of baseball’s hidden language told through stories and anecdotes about the game’s most recognizable names, revised and expanded through the 2018 season.

 

Preface to the Second Edition
Prologue
Introduction: Secrecy, Deception, and the National Pastime
1. From Signal Flags and Torches on the Battlefield to the Early Game
2. The Devious Devices of the Buzzer and Binocular Era
3. Psychological Warfare
4. The Magicians and Mimes of the Live Ball Era
5. A Golden Age for Cheaters, Stealers, and Scoreboard Spies
6. 1962—the Year of the Revisionist Finger-Pointers
7. Big Tippers
8. Epitaph for a Miracle
9. Devious Digital Devices—from the TV Camera to the Apple Watch
Conclusion: How to Really Watch a Baseball Game
Extra Innings: A Glossary of Signs, Signals, and Tip-Offs
Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Paul Dickson is the author of more than sixty-five nonfiction books, including more than a dozen on baseball. Winner of the Harry Chadwick Award from the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR), he is the author of the Dickson Baseball Dictionary, named by the Wall Street Journal as one of the five best baseball books ever written, and of Bill Veeck: Baseball’s Greatest Maverick, winner of the Casey Award from SABR.