The advances of virtual reality have come a long way and are starting to become more and more available to professional sports athletes. Football players and coaches have been using the technology more over the past few years and they are just scratching the surface. Baseball players are also seeing a bump in virtual reality.
A number of teams around Major League Baseball have set aside part of their budgets to invest in the improving virtual reality technology, which gives players a chance to simulate an at-bat against specific pitchers. Players wear a set of 3D glasses and step into a small room set up with the virtual reality equipment to simulate the environment and atmosphere they may see in a real game situation. Much of the reaction has been positive, as Mike DiGiovanni of The Los Angeles Times writes:
The Tampa Bay Rays are among several teams that have made six-figure investments in a baseball hitting simulator known as an iCube. Players don 3-D motion-tracking glasses, step into a small room that replicates a stadium and have a pitcher on a screen throw to them in true detailed form.
“It’s a huge advantage because sometimes you don’t see guys very often,” Rays outfielder Steven Souza said before last Wednesday’s game against the Dodgers in Tropicana Field.
“Take Alex Wood. We’re going to see him one time this year, maybe once in the next six years. So being able to see him on the screen, what it actually looks like, is going to make for a little more familiarity before we get in the box.”
Souza hit a home run off Wood when he faced him, scoring another run of support for using virtual reality in preparation. Maybe it was a coincidence. Maybe it helped. It certainly did not hurt. It may not be a perfect replacement for actually stepping in the box and facing a pitcher in real life, but it sure beats simply looking at a pitching chart and watching replays. According to 29-year-old Eon Sports VR CEO Brendan Reilly, whose company built Tampa Bay’s simulator and has also worked with several other MLB teams, players are seeing the advantages:
While he acknowledged “nothing can replace the at-bat experience,” he believes virtual reality can help.
“Guys are getting to face the pitcher they’re going to face that night,” Reilly said. “They can pick up his timing, get a feel for how his ball moves, how he pitched to him the last time. . . . You feel like you’re on the field in a real, live game.”
…The Rays, in town to play the Angels this weekend, are the only team that has publicly confirmed its partnership with EON Sports VR. But there are others.
“We work with a handful of major league teams — that’s all they will allow me to say,” Reilly said. “The other teams are pretty tight-lipped. They act like they’re the U.S. Army. It’s like Fort Knox.
“They don’t want other teams to know they have it. If they have something their competition doesn’t, even though their competition may get it next year, that still gives them a leg up.”
Not all the Rays are as sold on VR as Souza is, and there are also some more lukewarm comments in there from executives like Angels’ GM Billy Eppler, but it does seem to be something at least some players are eager to explore. Virtual reality is also enhancing the experience for some fans. The Kentucky Derby was just broadcast in virtual reality, and Fox has signed a five-year deal to broadcast events like the Daytona 500 in virtual reality to those with the ability to watch it.
