Baseball has been plagued by “sign stealing” – in which opposing teams try to view the hand signals between catcher and pitcher to gain an edge – since the 1800s. So for the 2023 season, Major League Baseball began allowing players to use PitchCom, an encrypted electronic communication system. The catcher presses one of nine buttons on a small plastic controller, and the pitcher hears (through a speaker under his hat) cues like “fastball” or “curveball, low inside.” The upshot? “We’ve restored integrity to the game,” says Craig Filicetti, president of ProMystic. “There’s no way to sign-steal anymore. None. You can’t do it.”
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