Electronic pitch calling in Little League.

Inside Glove is not affiliated with Little League. The summary below follows Little League's own 2025 rule announcement and the 2026 clarification on a device that stops working. It is not a substitute for the rulebook, your league's local rules, or the umpire assigned to the game. Confirm it before you use a watch in a game.

Sources: Little League's 2025 rule announcement and the 2026 rule changes.

Before 2025, Rule 3.17 restricted electronic communication during a game, including phones and radios used to talk to people on the field. Little League then added an exception in both baseball and softball.

The published exception allows all of the following, together:

• A coach or manager uses the device.
• The message goes one way, to the catcher.
• The team is on defense.
• The purpose is calling pitches.
• The coach uses the device in the dugout or bench area, not out on the field.

The 2026 book update adds one practical point: if that one-way device malfunctions, the team must be given a reasonable amount of time to correct it.

The same announcement draws a hard line around the exception. A coach may not:

• Use the device to communicate with any other player on defense.
• Use it to communicate with anyone, including a coach, while the team is on offense.
• Use the device outside the dugout or bench area.

A watch on the shortstop, a second screen for the pitcher, or a coach at third base tapping pitches are different products and a different rule question. Inside Glove sends the call to the catcher only. The catcher still sets the target with the glove, the way the pitcher already reads it.

Play-calling wristbands are uniform equipment. They put a code on the pitcher, or on a card the pitcher looks at. Other people can learn that code. An umpire who finds a band distracting can have it taken off.

That is not Rule 3.17. A wristband is still a sign with a key. A catcher's watch is a private display of one pitch and one location. The comparison is on the stolen signs page.

In a game played under this rule, the coach's watch stays in the dugout. The catcher wears the other watch. The coach sends the pitch and the zone. Only the catcher's screen shows it. Do not relay that call to another fielder with the watch, and do not carry the coach's watch onto the field.

If your league bans electronic devices outright, do not use the watches in a game. Local rules can be tighter than the Little League book. The pitch calling page describes the send itself, and the watch manual covers setup.