BigLeagueChew wrote:I think technology is a big issue. Go into a dugout and they have screens with replays from any game. Get rid of the replay system as well as any tech in the dugouts or an office behind the dugout. If you want to replay something, do it on your own natural instinct.
Technology is definitely the issue but in my view the problem comes when you start trying to play a middle ground regulatory system because it's basically impossible and teams just ignore it anyway. Once you're at the point where you have management calling in orders to the dugout while viewing from up high, you basically have to decide between banning all fans from bringing any cameras and phones into the game (ridiculous) while heavily policing what is and isn't taped and that it's strictly for television purposes (not workable) or starting to let stuff go because it's so easily exploitable. If you feel strongly that pitchers and catchers should be allowed a form of secret communication, you give them other methods to do so because signs simply won't work anymore. Anything else and you may as well give up unless you enjoy endless hand-wringing and moral grandstanding. And if you're going to have replays using technology, drawing an arbitrary line that you can't use technology to decide how much you're going to use technology is going to prove futile. Tell managers and coaches they can't have cell phones in the dugout? Good luck with that.
Thinking about it a bit, I think it's time to get proactive. The simple way to avoid sign stealing is robot pitchers. We're going to have robot umps anyway, so it's a natural next step. Teams can try to steal the radio signal but they won't be able to respond soon enough to a human batter. So naturally, to make it fair, we'll need robot batters, too, and since batters play in the field, we'll have robot fielders. Then we'll realize that it's entirely an AI game anyway so we may as well just have it virtual game of sorts - in video form. But we'll realize that we've lost some of the human element there so will decide to enforce human players, to control the batting and pitching at least. Then we'll notice they're rapidly jerking their controllers around trying to get into the action and we'll end up with:
The future came and went and we haven't even noticed it yet.
