Communications

[Guest Edgy DC]

I was thinking about the Phillies signal stealing incident and wondering about the state of MLB communications.

With football's head coaches constantly connected to their braintrust via headsets for the last 40 years or so, and wirelessly maybe the last dozen, why is a baseball manager (at least typically) reduced to a wall-mounted land line connected to his bullpen?

[Benjamin Grimm]

Would there be any advantage to having the manager and bullpen coach wearing headsets?

Maybe without the necessity, there's no invention.

[Guest Edgy DC]

I can think of a dozen reasons to be in instant or constant contact with them --- the pitching coach, trainer, base coaches, eye-in-the-sky.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Well, sure, I guess, if you want to think "outside the box."

I was, I'm ashamed to say, thinking inside the box. "Get the lefty up" can be conveyed just as easily wirefully as wirelessly.

It would make much more sense if Jerry could whisper "bunt" into a microphone and Alex Cora would hear it in his helmet, rather than have Chip Hale do an interpretive dance in the third base box.

But baseball hasn't been very innovative, and when they do innovate, it's usually awful. (DH, interleague play, All-Star games that count...)

[Gwreck]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: But baseball hasn't been very innovative, and when they do innovate, it's usually awful. (DH, interleague play, All-Star games that count...)

I'll give you DH, and that alone.

[Guest Edgy DC]

But I wouldn't think it particluarly innovative to speak via telecommuncations to your remote advisers during the game.

[ashie62]

I'm all in for of headsets only if they resemble the 'Great Gazoo's" with the antenna.

[Ceetar]

I think they want to stay away from the sign stealing stuff. It'd be so so easy, and the more electronics you put on the field, the more it'd happen.

It'd be ridiculously easy to have a camera in the outfield, a guy in the clubhouse watching it, and a really tiny speaker embedded in a cap, or a helmet, or a color, or an earring/necklace. "Hey Chase, slider in the dirt, lay off"

For that matter, think about how easy it would be to put hidden mics in the visitors dugout and bullpen.

[HahnSolo]

On a related note, and I think I've asked this before...

why does every team have their scouting reports and stats (I assume that is what they are) in the dugout in big-ass binders? Not to go all green, but why can't they just store all of it on a laptop?

[RealityChuck]

More freeform and easier to edit if you aren't a fast typer.

I'm sure they use laptops, too, actually, but anything in game is better jotted down on paper, at least until the tablet computer actually becomes useful.

[seawolf17]

Ceetar wrote: I think they want to stay away from the sign stealing stuff. It'd be so so easy, and the more electronics you put on the field, the more it'd happen. It'd be ridiculously easy to have a camera in the outfield, a guy in the clubhouse watching it, and a really tiny speaker embedded in a cap, or a helmet, or a color, or an earring/necklace. "Hey Chase, slider in the dirt, lay off" For that matter, think about how easy it would be to put hidden mics in the visitors dugout and bullpen.

The cynic in me says I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't already happen, honestly.

[Ceetar]

seawolf17 wrote: Ceetar wrote: I think they want to stay away from the sign stealing stuff. It'd be so so easy, and the more electronics you put on the field, the more it'd happen. It'd be ridiculously easy to have a camera in the outfield, a guy in the clubhouse watching it, and a really tiny speaker embedded in a cap, or a helmet, or a color, or an earring/necklace. "Hey Chase, slider in the dirt, lay off" For that matter, think about how easy it would be to put hidden mics in the visitors dugout and bullpen. The cynic in me says I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't already happen, honestly.

I agree, sadly. bugs on the mound too, listen in to pitcher-coach conversations. A lot of the difficulty is getting this info into the right hands fast enough, but there is no way teams arent' doing things.