Alright, so I gotta tell you about this crazy thing I tried out after reading about Brent Zdebski and his, uh, let’s just say “unique” approach to baseball. You know, the whole stealing signs thing. Now, I’m no baseball coach or anything, just a regular dude who likes to mess around with tech, and I thought, “Hey, could I actually do that?”
First things first, I needed a game. Luckily, my local high school team was playing. I wasn’t about to sneak into the actual game, that’s a bit much. Instead, I found a spot overlooking the field from a distance – far enough to not get noticed, but close enough to (hopefully) see something. Think “shady dude with binoculars” but replace the binoculars with a smartphone and a cheap zoom lens I grabbed off Amazon.
My plan? Total amateur hour. I figured the catcher probably has some basic signals, right? Number of fingers, maybe touching his mask, something like that. I wasn’t expecting anything super complicated. So, I set up my phone, zoomed in on the catcher, and started recording. My goal was to just record everything. I figured I could analyze the video later and maybe pick up on a pattern.
The recording part was actually harder than I thought. My arm got tired holding the phone steady, the wind kept messing with the image, and the sun was glaring. I only managed to get about an hour of usable footage before my phone battery started dying and I was roasting alive.
Then came the fun part – reviewing the footage. Oh man, was that tedious! Hours of watching grainy video of a tiny, distant catcher. I felt like I was in some sort of low-budget spy movie. I tried to focus on the moments before the pitch, looking for any consistent tells. Did he always touch his ear before a fastball? Did he scratch his leg before a curveball?
To be honest, after about three hours of this, I was ready to give up. It was mind-numbing. But then, I started noticing something. Every time the catcher touched his right knee, the pitcher threw a breaking ball. Now, I couldn’t be 100% sure, it could have been a coincidence, but it was consistent enough to pique my interest.
So, here’s where it gets even more ridiculous. The next game, I went back to my shady spot. This time, I wasn’t recording. I was just watching. And I was looking specifically for the knee touch. And, damn if it didn’t happen again! Knee touch, breaking ball. Again and again.
Now, I obviously couldn’t just walk up to the opposing team and yell “He’s gonna throw a curveball!” That would be insane. But, I could tell a friend who had a kid on the team what I had observed. I just said to him, “Hey, I think I noticed something about the catcher’s signals, keep an eye out for him touching his right knee, and if he does, be ready for a breaking ball.”
I have no idea if it actually helped, or if the kid even believed him. But a week later, my friend told me that his kid hit a double and he swear it was off of a curveball after the catcher touched his knee. Coincidence? Maybe. But it was a fun experiment, and it definitely gave me a new appreciation for the work that goes into real sign stealing in baseball. It’s harder than it looks, even with today’s technology!
Would I do it again? Probably not. It was way too time-consuming. But, hey, at least I can say I tried to be Brent Zdebski for a day… without actually breaking any rules, hopefully.
