Did the New York Giants have a secret weapon during their stunning late-season surge in 1951? Years later, former players revealed a sign-stealing scheme at the Polo Grounds, using a center-field telescope and buzzer system — rumored to have first been used in an 11-6 win over the Reds on July 20, 1951. From that day, they won 22 of their next 27 home games, setting the stage for Bobby Thomson’s “Shot Heard ’Round the World.” Was it pure magic—or something more calculated? For some Brooklyn Dodgers fans the news was long awaited vindication. For other fans, this was just one episode in baseball’s ongoing cat-and-mouse game of sign stealing.