NEW HIGH SCHOOL BASEBALL RULE CHANGE ALLOWS ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATION DEVICES BETWEEN COACHES AND CATCHERS

By Cinthia Rico
Last week, the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) approved the rule change to allow the use of one-way communication devices between a coach in the dugout and a team’s catcher for the purposes of calling pitches during high school baseball games starting in 2024.

This change to Rules 1-6-2 and 3-2-5 was one of five rules revisions approved by the NFHS Baseball Rules Committee at its June 4-6 meeting in Indianapolis. The recommendations were subsequently approved by the NFHS Board of Directors.

“This change is consistent with the growth of the game and is indicative of a measured and responsible approach to enable technology into our level of competition,” said Elliot Hopkins, NFHS Director of Sports and Educational Services and liaison to the Baseball Rules Committee.

The new rules prohibit coaches from communicating with any other player besides the catcher on defense and with any player while batting. The coach must also be in the dugout when using the communication device.

Hopkins said, “the committee has made these changes to maintain the balance between offense and defense; increase the pace of play; and will responsibly manage technology so there is no advantage gained by schools that have more available resources than some of their contemporaries. Creating a level playing field is paramount to education-based athletics.”

Five regulations were revised in total by the baseball rules committee, including those governing spectator conduct and defensive wristbands.

Game management by umpires was addressed with a change to Rule 10-2-3h. The edit removes spectators’ behavior from the umpire-in-chief’s jurisdiction when deciding to forfeit a contest.

The umpire’s authority only extends to infractions committed by players, coaches, or members of the team or bench. The committee agreed that the game’s administration should deal with disruptive/poor behavior by spectators.

“This change is a complementary rule to support schools’ game management role in addressing unacceptable behavior and will allow the umpire to focus on the action and players on the field,” Hopkins said.

Rule 1-6-1 was added and designates a wristband with defensive shifts, pitching choices or game directions as non-electronic equipment and must be a single, solid color and worn on the forearm.

The NFHS further states that pitchers’ cards cannot be “white, gray, or a distracting color” and cannot be worn on their non-pitching arm.

A complete listing of the baseball rules changes will be available on the NFHS website at www.nfhs.org. Click on “Activities & Sports” at the top of the home page and select “Baseball.”

According to the most recent NFHS High School Athletics Participation Survey, baseball is the fourth-most popular sport for boys with 481,004 student-athletes in 15,925 high schools nationwide. The survey also indicated that 1,156 girls across the country play high school baseball.