Former New York Yankee Looks to Introduce Virtual Reality to MLB
Jason Giambi, a perennial slugger for the Oakland Athletics and New York Yankees during the 1990’s wishes he had virtual reality simulations to help him prepare for games.
“The Strike Zone awareness simulation is unparalleled in baseball today,” Giambi said in a press release from EON Sports VR. “I can’t imagine what the game would have looked like if we had this technology when I broke into the league in the mid-90’s. Many kids live in cold weather climates where they can’t get out on the diamond every day. This solution allows hitters around the world to practice real-life applications and situations wherever they are.”
EON Sports has partnered with Giambi and former Colorado Rockies’ general manager Dan O’Dowd (now with MLB Network as an analyst) for their new baseball simulation venture: Project OPS.
In the 90s, baseball players were first getting accustomed to watching film on opponents before a series of games. Studying game film allows baseball players — and athletes from any sport — so study the tendencies of an opponent and figure out how to exploit a weakness.
But virtual reality adds a whole new dimension to an athlete’s preparation. The ability to watch your opponent up close through VR will not only help an athlete prepare better, but it will give him or her more confidence heading into a game or match.
Take baseball for instance. Studying a pitcher through game film is one thing, but being able to track his pitches before you even get to the on-deck circle will make batters even more prepared than ever before.
And in recent years, baseball has been dominated by pitchers who can throw in the upper 90 mph range, in addition to a variety of off-speed pitches. If a batter is able to track these pitches ahead of time, he will have more confidence going into the at-bat and an even better idea of what pitch will land in his ‘wheelhouse’.
Giambi, who played against the likes of Roger Clemens and Randy Johnson knows all too well that virtual reality would have helped him in at-bat preparations.
“I’ve stood in the box against some of the best and most intimidating pitchers in the world,” Giambi said. “They were so good at changing up their pitches, at times it was almost impossible to anticipate what they would throw. But with the EON Sports VR Project OPS, you are prepared for anything that a pitcher will throw at you.”
Perhaps Giambi would have added a few more home runs to his already impressive 20-year major league career, had he been able to utilize virtual reality.
