Paul Francis Sullivan makes the case for automatic calling of balls and strikes.
And before this October, I probably would have agreed with that. But a funny thing happened this postseason. I was watching the TBS broadcasts and I saw the little graphic box they put next to the batter during the game. Instantly after each pitch, it showed where in the strike zone it was and where it crossed the plate. Not in 15 minutes. Not in two minutes. Not in 30 seconds. Instantly and often before the umpire yelled “Strike” or “Ball.” I was watching a game from my couch in Los Angeles that was being played in Philadelphia and in real time I saw if the pitch was a strike or not. And it hit me like a Randy Johnson pitch to the helmet: Baseball should use that technology!
The easiest way to do this in my opinion would to use an overhead camera to call if the ball was over the plate. The ambiguity in the strike zone comes from different heights of players. Let the umpires call up and down, but let them know if the ball is over the plate or not. That way, the ump only needs to measure one dimension. If the red light on his mask goes on, and he thinks the ball was the proper height, it’s a strike. No more blown calls inside or outside.
Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should. This is part of the beauty of the game to me. Some get the call and some do not and that is part of the conversation. It will become boring if all calls are robotic. Half the fun and angst is yelling at bad calls. I want fun and angst in my baseball.
I agree with Relio. If they adopt that, what’s next? The neighborhood play at second? Swipe tags that beat the runner but don’t actually tag him? First-base cams to preserve lost perfect games? We probably already have the technology to do away with the umps altogether.
The NFL uses technology and I’d argue it’s made the officiating worse. Did you see the Steelers/Jets on Sunday? Awful.
While bad calls against my team hurt, if my team loses (and I’m honest) they simply didn’t play well enough to win.
I wouldn’t be against the rest of the league getting the same balls and strikes called that the yankees and red sox get.
heresy !
Where to start…. That TBS box was spotty at best and struck me as anything but consistently reliable. You know what? Let’s just cut to the chase: MLB has fared quite well with humans calling balls and strikes for the past 100 or so years. Let’s leave it that way.
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