Morgan Edward Murphy (February 14, 1867 – October 3, 1938) was an American

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

player who played 11 seasons as a catcher, most notably with the two time league champions Boston Reds.

Sign stealing

Murphy is mostly known today for his complicated, but innovative

sign stealing In baseball, sign stealing is the act of observing the signs being signaled by the opposing catcher to the pitcher or a coach, and the subsequent relaying of those signals to members of one's own team. Sign stealing is done with the intent of g ...

techniques. When he was playing for the

Philadelphia Phillies The Philadelphia Phillies are an American professional baseball team based in Philadelphia. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) National League East, East division. Since 2004, the team's home sta ...

in , he is credited as the inventor of a scheme where he positioned himself, along with a pair of

field glasses Binoculars or field glasses are two refracting telescopes mounted side-by-side and aligned to point in the same direction, allowing the viewer to use both eyes (binocular vision) when viewing distant objects. Most binoculars are sized to be held ...

, behind a

whiskey Whisky or whiskey is a type of distilled alcoholic beverage made from fermented grain mash. Various grains (which may be malted) are used for different varieties, including barley, corn, rye, and wheat. Whisky is typically aged in wooden cask ...

advertisement on the

outfield The outfield, in cricket, baseball and softball is the area of the field of play further from the batsman or batter than the infield. In association football, the outfield players are positioned outside the goal area. In cricket, baseball and ...

wall. There was a specific letter "O" that he would open or close to signal to the batter what pitch was going to be delivered. Later, in , he devised another scheme where he was still placed behind the outfield wall, but instead would relay the catcher's signs by wire to a buzzer box inside the third base coach's box. The third base coach would then signal to the batter the sign. This latest scheme was discovered, however, when

Tommy Corcoran Thomas William Corcoran (January 4, 1869 – June 25, 1960) was an American professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball as a shortstop from to for the Pittsburgh Burghers (1890), Philadelphia Athletics (1891), Brooklyn G ...

of the

Cincinnati Reds The Cincinnati Reds are an American professional baseball team based in Cincinnati. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) National League Central, Central division and were a charter member of ...

, tripped over he thought to be a vine coming out from under the ground, as he was rounding

third base A third baseman, abbreviated 3B, is the player in baseball or softball whose responsibility is to defend the area nearest to third base — the third of four bases a baserunner must touch in succession to score a run. In the scoring system us ...

. Upon further inspection, the vine turned out to be a

telegraph Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas p ...

wire, and he proceeded to pull up out of the ground until it reach the spot where Murphy relayed his signals.

Post-career

Murphy died at the age of 71 in

Providence, Rhode Island Providence is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. One of the oldest cities in New England, it was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a Reformed Baptist theologian and religious exile from the Massachusetts Bay ...

, and is interred at St. Francis Cemetery in

Pawtucket, Rhode Island Pawtucket is a city in Providence County, Rhode Island, United States. The population was 75,604 at the 2020 census, making the city the fourth-largest in the state. Pawtucket borders Providence and East Providence to the south, Central Falls ...

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Murphy, Morgan 1867 births 1938 deaths Boston Reds (PL) players Boston Reds (AA) players Cincinnati Reds players St. Louis Browns (NL) players Pittsburgh Pirates players Philadelphia Phillies players Philadelphia Athletics players Baseball players from Providence, Rhode Island Major League Baseball catchers New Britain (minor league baseball) players Springfield (minor league baseball) players Boston Blues players Lowell Magicians players Haverhill (minor league baseball) players Lowell Chippies players Lowell (minor league baseball) players burials in Rhode Island