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Catching without signs??

08Dad08Dad1,000+ posts
Brent Mayne had this to say today on ESPN.com:

quote:
"Remind me sometime later to tell you the story of the game I caught with no signs. I caught one whole game where the pitchers just threw whatever they wanted and I just reacted (we thought, and I think we were correct, that the other team had cameras). Surprisingly, it wasn't that difficult."


Assuming that it is true, how the heck did he do this? All I can think is that it was a slower, fastball, curveball, changeup kind of pitcher rather than a Randy Johnson where he would have been guessing on 97 MPH FB or 90 MPH slider...

The more I thought about it, the more amazing I thought this was... I have a hard enough time catching my college son when I know what is coming - let alone trying to read the pitch...

Thoughts - especially from catchers?

08
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T Tooldforthis100+ posts
My son, who is a catcher and pitcher, would do this when he was catching one of his H.S. pitchers against teams in their league. They would work together the day before the game and decide what pitches to throw to each batter they knew from the other team the first time around. They would also use another players name to change a pitch. He would turn his head to the dugout and holler to a player on the bench and never look at the pitcher. It seemed to work for them.
Backstop32Backstop3210+ posts
This seems absolutely incredible to me. I have done this before, but it was with a kid who threw no harder than 80 MPH and had no breaking stuff. However, if this was with a pitcher with any sort of breaking stuff I can't imagine how difficult and frustrating this would be.

On a side note, I have heard about Greg Maddux's catcher doing this on occasion. He just let the master work and trusted in him so much that he didn't give him any signs. Incredible.
K ken100+ posts
My son`s freshman year in high school he was called up to be the starting catcher on varsity and the #1 pitcher was a sr. lefty who threw great junk along with a decent fastball.The kid never shook off signs (coaches called the game)or even agreed with the sign.My son`s blocking skills became the strenght of his game ever since.

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