This is How Sports Teams Choose Their Tech Gear

AP

From as long as the 1930s, both major league baseball clubs as well as baseball historians have made the mention of phones in their bullpens as well as dugouts. Though historians are unsure of when they first came in to use, they have found the earliest mention in an article of the Sheboygan Press in the year 1930 with regard to the Yankee stadium.

It is strongly believed that the phones were used by the managers to make calls to the bullpen which is the area where pitchers warm up, so as to inform the relievers to get prepared to play. Though today this technology is not anything extraordinary, in the 1930s it was considered to be advanced which stands to be noted.

In the year 2013 which is not too long ago , T-mobile invested in millions to start a partnership with major league baseball in order to do away with stadium landlines and move on to cell phones. Reason being, with this change, the coach would be able to stand with the reliever and watch him play rather than be confined to the corner because of the landline. However this idea failed to take off well since until today all of the 30 Major league ball clubs make use of landlines since managers were not convinced enough to make a switch mentions Matthew Gould MLB spokesman.

Observers of the technology believe that that is how it works. There is a high level of mistrust when it comes to stressful situations hence technology does not work too well when it comes to both coaches and players even though there is a visible advantage of the same. Nick Watanabe who is a Sports administration professor at the University of Mississippi believes that people feel they will come across as stupid and it could cost them their career, however those who are using technology are surely at a competitive advantage.
For instance, coaches and players of NFL go through high numbers of photographs to check on the offence or defence of the opposition. Latest images are retrieved from printers after every play are carried around in think binders.

In the year 2014, the league and Microsoft went into a partnership to replace the use of binders with Surface Pro tablets. However this too wasn't accepted immediately - some coaches would make use of both binders as well as the tablet while others would call it an iPad or knock off iPads which did not go down will with Microsoft officials resulting in giving them a complete tutorial on how to both use and talk about the device.

This year, the NFL has granted permission to the teams to use the tablet so they have videos at the bench itself which was not allowed ever before which is resulted in the tablet being used all the time states Galen Clavio who is not only a professor of sports media at Indiana University but also the director of the National Sports Journalism Centre.

He also believes that it is not about the gadget being new but a gadget that does something new. There is a high amount of pressure faced when using these devices and for the users a pressure of being able to perform. Most NFL coaches most often have a tenure of 3 years thus it is up to them to decide what to spend their money on and they believe that spending on an app and not winning games could cost them their job.

This is the divide between what makes it to the sports world and what does not. The tablets helps with generating reports while the cell phones do not help with games.

Very often there is a generation gap when it comes to professional sports coaches, they belong to a different generation from the technology mentions Ann Pegoraro who happens to be the director of the Institute for Sport Marketing at Laurentian University in Ontario, Canada. It is like asking your grandfather to work with an iPad which is crazy, we would all agree.

It is simple if your grandfather does not know how to make use of the data, and a tech savvy niece or nephew gets hold of the data, it could be misused.

Watanabe mentions that not everybody trusts technology however the ones who do and have mastered the use have begun to reap benefits resulting in teams being secretive in what devices they use during not only the game but also practice.

The major league has provider every club with an iPad which can be used in the dugout and a mobile had also been allowed on the field for the first time in 113 years and the technology is being made use of by every team as it benefits their overall game.