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silveradept) wrote2015-12-12 12:32 am
silveradept) wrote2015-12-12 12:32 am
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December Days 12 - Signs (The Eleven of Mitts)
[This is part of a series exploring the Baseball Tarot. If you would like to prompt for a part of the game or a card from the deck, all the rest of the month is available for your curiosity, about either baseball or Tarot. Leave a comment with a prompt if you want in. All other comments are still welcome, of course.]
Baseball, like every combat simulation sport, develops methods of communication intended to send maximum information for minimum effort, attempting to achieve high levels of compression and communicate to all nine of the players on the field all at once. The offense has it a little easier, needing only to communicate with a maximum of four at a time. Voice communication would be a good possibility, except that there isn't a ballpark at the professional level where a coach can be heard and understood all the way across the field. Not to mention how easy it would be to disrupt shouted instructions with chatter or other loud actions, confusing basically everyone. Because of the need for clarity over distance, all communication on a baseball field done during a time when the ball is in play needs a nonverbal component to it.
This includes communication from the umpires. The "out" and "safe" signals are the most commonly used ones, and have also been used by umpires to indicate affirmative and negative responses, respectively, to the many questions asked of them and appeals made. For any cricket fans, most of those questions are covered under the idea of "how's that?", in that most of those questions are appeals, and that affirmative answers cause dismissals or get players closer to being out, and negative ones do not.
Interestingly, the need for nonverbal communication also generates a need for encryption as well as a need for compression. The more common sets of signs are those exchanged between the base coaches and the baserunners and hitter, and the signs given from the catcher to the pitcher to indicate pitch selection and placement. If one watches the game on television, sometimes the offensive signs appear, but not frequently - the cameras prefer to cycle through pictures of the baserunners rather than the coaches that are relaying the plan. If you have an interest in cryptographic systems, trying to work out the signs of your home baseball team's offensive coaches over a season is probably a good exercise in codebreaking.
The catcher's signs, on the other hand, are a familiar sight to television audiences, because the framing of pitcher and hitter includes the catcher, and the cameras want to make sure they capture the entire pitch process with the impressive zoom that comes with the territory. (Since that camera is beyond the center field fence, usually more than 400 feet away.) The catcher usually flashes some amount of fingers, signaling a pitch decision, and then moves the fingers to indicate a desired effect or placement, which the catcher usually shifts to and provides a target to hit with their mitt. The fingers are usually placed and used at crotch level, between the legs, so as to prevent other eyes from seeing the signs as much as possible. Private encrypted communication, intended for the pitcher's eyes only.
Since players and other coaches are looking for any advantage that is possible, a discernible system of communication allows the defense to know when the offense will attempt steals, bunts, and when the hitter is being told to take a pitch. The offense, in turn, can determine where the defense is aligning themselves and can communicate up to the hitter what kind of pitches will be thrown. This, when the signs are given, they will usually include useful and useless signals and information so as not to give any of to the opposition about what the plan actually is.
However, should the encryption be weak or the opposing team be able to work out what the actual signs are, the team that is reading the signs of the opposition will be said to be "stealing" them. This does not usually end well, as a team that suspects the other side is stealing their signs will not only change the signs, but often arranges for plausibly deniable "accidents" to happen, like pitches at head height or slides into bases that show and attempt to embed the spikes on the cleats into the defense. Such things can spark retaliation, and then the rhubarb begins in earnest. There are no formal penalties for stealing signs, but the informal ones can be steep. It is an unwritten rule of baseball that one does not steal signs, which means if there is knowledge being passed, it had better be done discreetly and without any obvious signs of what is going on.
When this card appears in your reading, most obviously, look for the signals. Someone is trying to communicate with you on something important, to give some direction, some suggestion, some advice based on the scenario you are in and their own experience. While they can't necessarily compel you to do what they want (pitchers give the shake-off all the time), if you can figure out what the signs are, it's probably a good idea to follow them. Or be ready to have a conference and explain what you're seeing that makes the signs seem wrong.
If you're giving the signs, remember to be as clear as possible. There may be a need for some misdirection if there's opposition, but use no more than the minimum required, because your job is to make sure that everyone in your side is on the same page and knows what they're doing.
If you're stealing signs, or think that it's a good idea to do so, remember that both inside and outside of baseball, there are penalties for those who trade on information they aren't supposed to know or that is supposed to be private. Many of them are social or uncodified, which means they have the potential to be much more harsh and long-lasting than any official ones. You may want to rethink your strategy on that idea, or reconsider working with our for someone who users this as their primary technique for getting ahead. It's not really a case of if the backfire happens, but when.
Baseball, like every combat simulation sport, develops methods of communication intended to send maximum information for minimum effort, attempting to achieve high levels of compression and communicate to all nine of the players on the field all at once. The offense has it a little easier, needing only to communicate with a maximum of four at a time. Voice communication would be a good possibility, except that there isn't a ballpark at the professional level where a coach can be heard and understood all the way across the field. Not to mention how easy it would be to disrupt shouted instructions with chatter or other loud actions, confusing basically everyone. Because of the need for clarity over distance, all communication on a baseball field done during a time when the ball is in play needs a nonverbal component to it.
This includes communication from the umpires. The "out" and "safe" signals are the most commonly used ones, and have also been used by umpires to indicate affirmative and negative responses, respectively, to the many questions asked of them and appeals made. For any cricket fans, most of those questions are covered under the idea of "how's that?", in that most of those questions are appeals, and that affirmative answers cause dismissals or get players closer to being out, and negative ones do not.
Interestingly, the need for nonverbal communication also generates a need for encryption as well as a need for compression. The more common sets of signs are those exchanged between the base coaches and the baserunners and hitter, and the signs given from the catcher to the pitcher to indicate pitch selection and placement. If one watches the game on television, sometimes the offensive signs appear, but not frequently - the cameras prefer to cycle through pictures of the baserunners rather than the coaches that are relaying the plan. If you have an interest in cryptographic systems, trying to work out the signs of your home baseball team's offensive coaches over a season is probably a good exercise in codebreaking.
The catcher's signs, on the other hand, are a familiar sight to television audiences, because the framing of pitcher and hitter includes the catcher, and the cameras want to make sure they capture the entire pitch process with the impressive zoom that comes with the territory. (Since that camera is beyond the center field fence, usually more than 400 feet away.) The catcher usually flashes some amount of fingers, signaling a pitch decision, and then moves the fingers to indicate a desired effect or placement, which the catcher usually shifts to and provides a target to hit with their mitt. The fingers are usually placed and used at crotch level, between the legs, so as to prevent other eyes from seeing the signs as much as possible. Private encrypted communication, intended for the pitcher's eyes only.
Since players and other coaches are looking for any advantage that is possible, a discernible system of communication allows the defense to know when the offense will attempt steals, bunts, and when the hitter is being told to take a pitch. The offense, in turn, can determine where the defense is aligning themselves and can communicate up to the hitter what kind of pitches will be thrown. This, when the signs are given, they will usually include useful and useless signals and information so as not to give any of to the opposition about what the plan actually is.
However, should the encryption be weak or the opposing team be able to work out what the actual signs are, the team that is reading the signs of the opposition will be said to be "stealing" them. This does not usually end well, as a team that suspects the other side is stealing their signs will not only change the signs, but often arranges for plausibly deniable "accidents" to happen, like pitches at head height or slides into bases that show and attempt to embed the spikes on the cleats into the defense. Such things can spark retaliation, and then the rhubarb begins in earnest. There are no formal penalties for stealing signs, but the informal ones can be steep. It is an unwritten rule of baseball that one does not steal signs, which means if there is knowledge being passed, it had better be done discreetly and without any obvious signs of what is going on.
When this card appears in your reading, most obviously, look for the signals. Someone is trying to communicate with you on something important, to give some direction, some suggestion, some advice based on the scenario you are in and their own experience. While they can't necessarily compel you to do what they want (pitchers give the shake-off all the time), if you can figure out what the signs are, it's probably a good idea to follow them. Or be ready to have a conference and explain what you're seeing that makes the signs seem wrong.
If you're giving the signs, remember to be as clear as possible. There may be a need for some misdirection if there's opposition, but use no more than the minimum required, because your job is to make sure that everyone in your side is on the same page and knows what they're doing.
If you're stealing signs, or think that it's a good idea to do so, remember that both inside and outside of baseball, there are penalties for those who trade on information they aren't supposed to know or that is supposed to be private. Many of them are social or uncodified, which means they have the potential to be much more harsh and long-lasting than any official ones. You may want to rethink your strategy on that idea, or reconsider working with our for someone who users this as their primary technique for getting ahead. It's not really a case of if the backfire happens, but when.