As a Coach, telling your batter where the catcher is setting up (in or out) considered cheating in baseball ?

by Dan
(Hawaii)

Dan asked: As a coach, telling your batter where the catcher is setting up ( in or out) considered cheating in baseball. An ethical or good sportsmanship question.


Rick answered: Dan, thank you for your question.

It would be considered both an ethical and good sportsmanship issue.

An additional related scenario is a batter sneaking a look back attempting to steal a catcher's signal for what pitch is coming.

There is also some consideration given to runners on first looking in to see what pitch is coming, to gain an advantage in possibly stealing a base on an off speed pitch.

All of these come under the heading of Baseball's Unwritten Rules, of which there are many.

Generally the enforcement of these rules comes in the form of the batter being hit by a pitch, or if the offender was a base runner, possibly he will become a target in his next at bat.

Coaches who are telling batters where the catcher is setting up are creating a situation where the retaliation will undoubtedly be centered on that teams best player, or their pitcher, even though it was an unethical coach who set him up.

At the MLB level, these retaliations for Unwritten Rule Violations happen quite a bit. May carry over from year to year(s), depending on the original violation.

College level and high school baseball will participate at various times, if it is felt that the opponent had violated the code. Less often than MLB.


Yours in baseball,

Rick