Taking Signs

[JJ]

One of my first years of umping high school baseball, as the base umpire I noticed the catcher flashing "traditional" signs while the pitcher was nowhere near the rubber or even looking at the catcher. I told the pitcher to make sure he's on the rubber when he's taking signs from the catcher, and he replied, "I'm not taking signs from the catcher - I'm taking them directly from the coach in the dugout." The catcher flashing signs was meaningless. It was an early lesson in "don't go looking for boogers".