NEW YORK — Chris Bassitt cupped his hand over his ear and shook his head in confusion, seemingly mouthing, “Which one?”
The problem was the PitchCom, a new development in baseball this season. The visual signs put down by catchers for generations had proven vulnerable to nefarious illegal observation, and so they’d ditched the analog system for something that couldn’t be seen. Now, catchers press buttons on a wristband to trigger a small bone-conduction earpiece in the pitcher’s hat to suggest a certain pitch. Auditory communication, instead of visual.
The system was rolled out in spring training to such positive reviews that it was basically ubiquitous by the end of the regular season.