- Dec 11, 2010
- 4,723
- 113
DD played for a coach who had a sign to steal and a sign to fake bunt/steal. Pretty sure that was it. This was a really good team too.
The signs were not conventional. They came at unconventional times. He used the same ones for years. It drove the conspiracy theorists on the other teams crazy trying to figure out what he was doing. If the opposing team was in 3rd base dugout, he was always schmoozing the other coaches while he was doing it and they knew he was giving signs and couldn’t figure it out. He even had former players playing on former teams so some teams knew the signs, if we were playing local he just didn’t care and honestly they never seemed to see it anyway.
He also didn’t usually call pitches. His catchers called most pitches and he would say “throw your best stuff” occasionally or would throw a sign here and there. He would absolutely rag on catchers if he thought they weren’t doing a good job calling pitches.
Another story: We were in Colorado playing “one of those” west coast teams. In my day job I got pretty good at noticing anomalies and saw one right before the “I love to throw down to first every other pitch” type catcher threw down to first. (There was actually a problem with the signs and also a tell the catcher did every time before she threw.) I started telling the runners quietly when they were going to try a pick and it drove the coaches insane. They thought I had picked their signs and changed wrist bands twice. They were pissed. It was really fun.
At some point you gotta teach college bound kids to use wrist bands but it really is possible to avoid the whole deal. Kind of a “let the kids play” type deal. I couldn’t pull it off personally but most of you are smarter than me, lol.
The signs were not conventional. They came at unconventional times. He used the same ones for years. It drove the conspiracy theorists on the other teams crazy trying to figure out what he was doing. If the opposing team was in 3rd base dugout, he was always schmoozing the other coaches while he was doing it and they knew he was giving signs and couldn’t figure it out. He even had former players playing on former teams so some teams knew the signs, if we were playing local he just didn’t care and honestly they never seemed to see it anyway.
He also didn’t usually call pitches. His catchers called most pitches and he would say “throw your best stuff” occasionally or would throw a sign here and there. He would absolutely rag on catchers if he thought they weren’t doing a good job calling pitches.
Another story: We were in Colorado playing “one of those” west coast teams. In my day job I got pretty good at noticing anomalies and saw one right before the “I love to throw down to first every other pitch” type catcher threw down to first. (There was actually a problem with the signs and also a tell the catcher did every time before she threw.) I started telling the runners quietly when they were going to try a pick and it drove the coaches insane. They thought I had picked their signs and changed wrist bands twice. They were pissed. It was really fun.
At some point you gotta teach college bound kids to use wrist bands but it really is possible to avoid the whole deal. Kind of a “let the kids play” type deal. I couldn’t pull it off personally but most of you are smarter than me, lol.
