This week’s Moment is dedicated to Morgan Murphy, dubbed by Sporting Life as “the Thomas Edison of baseball.” In 1900, Murphy was a weak-hitting backup catcher for the Phillies, but despite his shortcomings on the field he was a secret weapon off the field, sometimes even outside the stadium.

You’ve heard of telegraphing passes and telegraphing punches. Well, during home games, Murphy would literally telegraph opposing catchers’ signs, using binoculars while staring through a peephole in the outfield fence and relaying the signs to the Phillies’ third-base coach with a telegraph machine via a wire buried under the third base foul line.

The invention paid dividends—the 1900 Phillies were 45-23 at home, 30-40 on the road—until September 17th, when the Reds’ third-base coach got his cleats caught on the wire and tripped. He started digging at the spot, and a couple inches beneath the surface found a small metal box with an electronic device inside. He pulled up the wire, and sure enough it led straight to the Phillies’ centerfield clubhouse.

Though sign stealing was commonplace (albeit frowned upon) at the time, and is still practiced in the shadows on occasion, there’s never been a more ingenious spy in baseball than Morgan Murphy.