HOWARD — For the baseball purist, at least for now some finger signals from the catcher to the pitcher are still used.
However, technology has invaded America’s pastime at the high school level — and the East Knox Bulldogs baseball team was trying it out for the first time on Friday night.
Catcher Courtland Armstrong stood in the dugout literally wired for sound.
Wearing not only the usual equipment for a catcher, helmet, facemask, chest protector and shin guards, Armstrong also sported a belt with pouch, a receiver attached to a listening tube, which was then attached to an earpiece.
On the other end of the system is the pitching coach who is able to audibly tell the catcher what pitch needs to be thrown.
“I’ll talk to the catcher and the catcher will use the finger signals to relay the message to the pitcher,” explained pitching coach Bailey Sprague.
Armstrong said he’s happy with the system.
“I love it, it is very convenient, it was easy to learn to use, the coach talks to me through the earpiece and then I relay the pitch to the pitcher using finger signals,” Armstrong said.
Head Coach Gage Steinmetz said the system has been used in a few practice sessions.
“We got this in the off-season and we used it in practice but this is it, this is the start of it,” Steinmetz said.
The coach explained that it is a one-way conversation.
“The catcher cannot communicate back with the coach.”
The coach believes that it helps the team with the “secrecy” of the next pitch, “ the coach puts on a headset and they just communicate, It prevents sign stealing.”
Steinmetz said that he was not aware of any other Knox County teams using the technology.
“It is becoming more popular though,” he said.
The system cost $500 to implement.
“The kids worked really hard with fundraisers” the coach said.
