In lieu of actual baseball, I’ll be posting snippets that were cut from The Baseball Codes as a way of amusing myself and, hopefully, you. Today’s theme: Peeking (batters subtly glancing backward in an effort to pick up the catcher’s signs or location).

In 2001, Members of the Red Sox claimed that videotape proved Tampa Bay first baseman Fred McGriff peeked backward prior to hitting a home run … in a game that didn’t even involve Boston.

McGriff’s homer came off a pitch from Toronto closer Billy Koch, and the Red Sox-based allegations ended up in Peter Gammons’ notebook on ESPN.com. One member of the Blue Jays said in the Toronto Globe and Mail that the complaint came from pitching coach Joe Kerrigan, “who is paranoid as hell. He’s the same guy who thought we had a camera over the outfield fence (at the SkyDome) to steal signs.”

Toronto catcher Darrin Fletcher offered a more reasoned take on the matter, saying that it can be difficult to discern peeking from innocent head movements. “A lot of guys, if you watch them, they’re usually just glancing back at the position of their hands and bat,” he said. “You might think they’re peeking, but they’re not.”