Dodgers’ Pitches Could Be Heard on Sunday Night Baseball During Third Inning
During the Dodgers and Cardinals game on Sunday Night Baseball on ESPN, fans could hear a PitchCom device signaling Gavin Stone’s pitches before they left his hand. Notice how audible the word “changeup” is during this interview with infielder Kiké Hernández, who was mic’d up for the inning:
The volume level of Hernandez’s PitchCom device was high enough that his microphone was able to pick up the sound. As a result, the Dodgers’ pitches were being given away on a live broadcast.
What’s unclear is how, or if, the error affected what happened on the field. The first two batters of the inning, Victor Scott II and Masyn Winn, singled off Dodgers pitcher Gavin Stone.
The next batter, Brendan Donovan, popped out. But the next batter, Paul Goldschmidt, singled to score Scott with the Cardinals’ first run of the game. Stone came back to strike out Nolan Gorman and get Nolan Arenado to fly out to left field.
The simple, innocuous reason why Stone’s pitches were audible on the broadcast begs an obvious question: why hasn’t this happened before?
PitchCom was approved for use by the MLB Players’ Association in time for the 2022 season. By 2023, the system had gained broad acceptance around the league. ESPN has been mic’ing up players in-game for years now, so perhaps the simplest explanation might also be the most accurate: no mic’d up player had turned up his volume as loud as Hernandez did Sunday night.
Photo Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports
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Seems unlikely that this affected the on field play at all. First, the Cardinals’ dugout would have to be watching the live feed and second, they would have to have known in advance this would happen to have a method of relaying the pitch information to the batter.
All live feeds of a team’s own game in and around the clubhouse, the bullpen, the batting cages, etc, are required by MLB to be on a 18 second delay from first pitch to end of game. There are MLB staff at every game checking and enforcing this.
Always wondered what those MLB guys in the dugout were for. Probably to make sure no cheating was going on like those garbage can banging Astros back in 2017. Still fries me that they got no penalties whatsoever except for the manager and the GM getting sacked, Every player who knowingly participated should have had to forfeit their winnings and the championship been vacated.. That is what a REAL commissioner would have done, like Bowie Kuhn did to Charlie Finley back in 1978 when he sold of all his best players (Vida Blue, Rollie Fingers and Joe Rudi) because they were about to become free agents and he wanted to get something (a million each) for them when they were all making less than 100K each.
There was a scientific study recently released about how people who bring up old stuff like 2017 (yall lost and will always be 2017 2nd best team) surely smoke poles in closets and basements… you prolly go to all the rainbow festivals and wish u had a unicorn too… Big Blue Losers is what u should change your name to… quit living in the past “buddy”
That would be an exciting study to review. Please provide or cite it so we can analyze and respond. I was at a lunch with Jim Crane (Asterisks owner) not too long ago, and he was asked about “vacating” the title. His response was interesting, borderline unethical, or in the grey area, but nevertheless logical. Mr. Crane is a very successful businessman in a variety of industries. He simply made a business decision for his ball club under what he considered to be the best for the business and his team. While I disagree with him as a die-hard Dodger fan, his logic was solid, albeit questionable ethically. If one choses to “live on the edge” of ethics, to each their own. Karma always has a way..!