The Pitching Pitcher and the Pitch Con

The Royals are calling their own pitches with the pitch con device, which we talked about last week. Richard Hirschberger said you will be unsurprised to learn that this was a discussion baseball had back in the 1880s. Signals became necessary in the 1870s as pitchers began throwing effective curveballs. At first, the pitcher gave the signal but this had the obvious flaw that the sign was easier to steal.