One minute, I was sipping an iced green tea at a midtown Manhattan Starbucks. The next, I was sitting behind the plate at a Major League stadium as Cleveland Indians closer Cody Allen threw 97 MPH fastballs at my face.

It was all thanks to a virtual reality demo from EON Sports VR, a peek inside technology that MLB teams have already started using to help them gain a real competitive advantage.

EON recently announced a partnership with the Tampa Bay Rays that allows players to use one of their VR simulators — a 10-by-10 room that EON Sports CEO can only describe as the “holodeck” from Star Trek — to dial up any pitcher they’re facing and see a real-time simulation of what they’re about to see at the plate. They can stand behind the dish or in the batter’s box to study the pitches as they come in. There’s even an option to swing and “connect” with those pitches.

“Some guys like to see the last five at-bats against a pitcher,” Reilly told For The Win during a visit to New York. “Some guys like to get a feel on timing. They all say the same thing: ‘How I hit this pitcher is predicated on timing.’”

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