What do the hand signals in baseball mean?
The First and Third Base coaches are relaying the signals from the manger on what they want to batter and any base runners to do. There are different signs to steal, do a hit and run, bunt, and swing away. Steal is just telling the base runner to go for a steal on the next pitch and for the batter to not swing. Hit and run is telling the base runner to start running as if to steal on the next pitch and the batter is responsible to make sure he makes contact with the ball. Bunt is to bunt, either to just move the runner over or to squeeze the runner on third home. Hit away is telling the batter to hit at their own choice on the next pitch. The guy behind the the guy hitting, the catcher, is relaying the pitch selection to the pitcher. He has different signals for each pitch the pitcher throws and he has different signals for which sign to actually use. He will also signal if it is supposed to be inside or outside, high or low.
