New college baseball wristband rule may thwart sign stealing

A new rule intended to help speed up the game also could thwart attempts to steal signs in college baseball.

The NCAA will allow a pitcher to wear a wristband with a signal card when the season opens Friday, allowing him and the catcher to look into the dugout to get pitch calls and eliminating the need for the catcher to relay the call with hand signs.

Sign stealing has come to the fore since the Houston Astros were found to have used electronics to steal signs during their run to the 2017 World Series championship and in the 2018 season.

The wristband rule in college baseball was put in to expedite the process of coaches calling pitches from the dugout with the implementation of the 20-second limit between pitches.

“The wristbands with the card that you can change every inning makes it harder for people to steal signs,” Minnesota coach John Anderson said. “We're in a similar space as professional baseball with all the video systems and cameras and more television broadcasts today.”

Attempts to steal signs has always been accepted in baseball, with coaches and players keeping an eye on the opponent's on-field mannerisms, how the catcher sets up or how fielders move, not to mention trying to figure out hand signs.

“There's a way to pick pitches and a way not to pick pitches,” UCLA coach John Savage said. "If you get an unfair advantage from the in-game (TV) monitor or center field camera and relay pitches right away, I just think it's very unethical.

“The message has been sent. Everybody's been talking about it literally every day since that (Astros) thing came out and they're still talking about it, and it's not going away. Your job as a staff is to make sure that you fix anything you're doing in terms of giving away pitches. That's always been on the...

source https://www.chron.com/news/crime/article/New-college-baseball-wristband-rule-may-thwart-15056569.php