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).

For Omar Vizquel it was turning toward the umpire to call time because the scoreboard was playing video that he found distracting. For Von Joshua it was that he swiveled his head to scratch his chin with his back shoulder. Neither player peeked, or had intentions of peeking, but both were perceived to have done so. And each is convinced that what happened next—for Vizquel it was a first-pitch fastball from Roger Clemens into his ribs; for Joshua it was a Jim Bibby heater aimed at his head—was a direct result.