Nonverbal signals are woven into the fabric of baseball, at all levels. Different gestures, typically made with fingers, hands and arms, represent different commands — bunt, steal, pitchout, and so on — that make up greater strategies for winning games.

What do these gestures mean?

“If you really watched us long enough, I’m sure you could probably figure them out,” says Sean Kinney, the second-year head coach of the Bend Elks. “It’s very simplistic.”

Cracking the code is supposed to be anything but simple. It does happen, though, even in the summer collegiate West Coast League.

And it has happened to the Elks this season.

“One team — I think it was Bellingham or Cowlitz — picked it,” says Bend shortstop Ryan Dunn, who will be a senior at Oregon State. “We made a new hot sign (in response). It gets them off your back.”

First, a vocabulary lesson: A team has “picked” another team when it uncovers the meanings behind the gesturing — two fingers from the catcher to the pitcher means curveball, for example — and begins to use that knowledge to its competitive advantage.

The “hot sign” is the signal that confirms a specific command. If, for instance, the third-base coach touches the bill of his cap to indicate steal, he will brush an arm across his chest to give the green light — the steal is on. That second sign is the hot sign.

Before the start of the summer season, Kinney and the assistant coaches convene to explain their system of signals to the team’s players. (For competitive reasons, Kinney would not disclose his current signals.) The system has to be user-friendly for the 41 players on the 2011 Elks roster, each of whom comes from a different background of familiar commands.

“At school, your signs are a lot more complicated because you’re using them for all 55, 60 games that you play. You don’t want to get picked at all during the season,” says Elks catcher Toby DeMello, who was a junior this past spring at Saint Mary’s College in Moraga, Calif. “In summer ball, it’s a lot different feel. We like to keep it simple because, you know, you just meet these guys for a few days and (then) you’re out playing.”

“They (college teams) have a million signs,” says Kinney, who during the school year is an assistant coach at Whitman College in Walla Walla, Wash. “It’s unreal.”

The players also have time with their college teams to absorb all those signs.

“They get the whole fall, and winter, and preseason to really get the signs down,” Kinney explains.

While offensive commands typically are uniform for all players on a team, pitchers and catchers usually come up with their own signal systems. Collaboration between battery mates occurs on the fly during the brief summer season. DeMello recalls his first game behind home plate with the Elks: “We had a game two days (after I arrived). I probably knew four guys. I got to the mound and was like, ‘Hey, by the way, I’m Toby. I haven’t even met you yet. What do you wanna do for signs?’ ”

DeMello says he has been “surprised” by how well the Elks’ pitchers and catchers have worked together this summer.

“I feel like, at (Saint Mary’s), a lot of our pitchers are pretty stubborn,” he says. “(The Elks pitchers are) like, hey, I want to adapt to you too. It kind of works both ways.”

Like Kinney with the offensive signals, DeMello tries to keep things simple with the pitching staff when calling for pitches with his fingers.

“Here, it’s just one (finger for a) fastball; two, curve; three, slider; four, change(-up). Someone’s slider could be a three, and someone’s curveball could be a three at another school. It’s just different. At school, you have more time to get used to different pitchers. In summer (ball), you’ve got a week or two.”

Pitching signals are often changed with runners on base, as the pitcher and catcher work together to prevent their signs from being stolen.

“If nobody’s on (base), it’s just one sign (to call a pitch),” says Bend pitcher Josh McAlister, a freshman last season at Arizona State. “If there’s a guy on second (base), it depends.”

As the runner on second base watches, the catcher will drop a number of fingers a number of times to call the pitch. Perhaps the real signal is the first signal or perhaps it’s the second — only the pitcher and catcher know for sure. Pitchers and catchers can use the number of outs, or the number of strikes, in a specific formula designed to keep the base runner from breaking the code and relaying helpful information to the batter at the plate.

In the interest of security, the catcher may add a gesture of confirmation or denial — a touch of the chest protector or the face mask, for example. The pitcher may add his own sign to shake off a pitch, or to confirm it himself.

Anything to keep the strategic intent confidential and safe.