catchers comments

[dumbdumb]

so, for all you former catchers talking about the head tap from catchers on the topic below and letting them know you are on to them, or letting us know what NFHS says on the subject, now that head taping for a pitch challenge in MLB is the official challenge sign and amateurs are mimicking the tap.

what were your signals to the coach when you did not agree with the call. don't act like the head tap is the newest thing since sliced bread sign. what was "the code(s)" as time has gone by. share with us.

[grayhawk]

Not a former catcher, but there was one that would put his hand over his mask to throw us under the bus with his coach.

[BigBlue4u]

When I was catching (prior to my umpire days) I would touch the ground with the tip of my glove after throwing the ball back to the pitcher.  This would only apply to pitches on the corners.  The dugout could see the height of a pitch themselves.

[Matthew Turner]

I've been coaching for 21 or so years, most of those as a head coach. I've never felt the need to have a sign like this. 1.) I'm not trusting my catcher to call pitches any better than the umpire. 2.) What am I actually going to do with the information? 3.) This is just teaching excuse-making which is something I can not tolerate. 4.) At all but the highest levels of varsity baseball, we're not trying to execute a specific game plan against a specific hitter and even if we were, the chances that a 14yo pitcher and catcher could implement and execute said plan are almost zero.

During the few years I coached state-ranked varsity teams, if my catcher felt we weren't getting a certain spot that we needed, we could discuss that between innings and how to adjust our game plan against certain hitters.

[Velho]

On 4/2/2026 at 11:25 AM, Matthew Turner said:

I've been coaching for 21 or so years, most of those as a head coach. I've never felt the need to have a sign like this. 1.) I'm not trusting my catcher to call pitches any better than the umpire. 2.) What am I actually going to do with the information? 3.) This is just teaching excuse-making which is something I can not tolerate. 4.) At all but the highest levels of varsity baseball, we're not trying to execute a specific game plan against a specific hitter and even if we were, the chances that a 14yo pitcher and catcher could implement and execute said plan are almost zero.

 

Well you're never getting from HS to MLB with that attitude!

[The Man in Blue]

Well, I guess that's why I never got my cup of coffee.  

Never had any signal to communicate back to the dugout.  What difference does it make?

What is weird is that I had a bad childhood and always played with a chip on my shoulder, so if I was unhappy with something, everybody knew it already.  That said, I don't ever recall being mad at an umpire when I caught.  When I was hitting, that was different.

 

I mellowed out . . . for a while.  Now I'm getting to be a grumpy old man and some of those "don't really care what people think" bad habits are creeping back in. 😁