Baseball is built on traditions. One of those traditions – the catching throwing down a sign and having the pitcher shake his head yes or no to the suggested pitch type.
Well, that tradition has pretty much gone to the wayside with PitchCom. If you haven’t been following baseball too closely, PitchCom is an electronic system that the MLB implemented a few seasons back to replace hand signals by the catcher. Instead of throwing down a sign, the catcher simply pushes a button on the device which then gets transmitted to the pitcher through his hat.
I was recently watching a Blue Jays game where PitchCom was taken a step further. Instead of the catcher pressing the buttons, pitcher Chris Bassitt had the device on his belt and pressed the buttons himself, essentially calling his own game. I’m sure other pitchers do this as well, but this was my first time seeing it and it kind of rubbed me the wrong way.
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See I’m a traditionalist when it comes to baseball. To me, the catcher is the general on the field. They are the ones responsible for selecting pitch types. In all honesty, it’s one of the reasons I played catcher when I played baseball. The strategy of selecting the right pitch to the right batter at the right time.
Technology has its place in baseball but in the process a lot of the traditions that make baseball unique are fleeing.
What are your opinions of PitchCom? Comment below!
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