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A Computer Umpires Its First Pro Baseball Game
An anonymous reader writes: Baseball has long been regarded as a "game of inches." Among the major professional sports it arguably requires the greatest amount of precision — a few extra RPMs can turn a decent curveball into an unhittable one, and a single degree's difference in the arc of a bat swing can change a lazy popup into a home run. As sensor technology has improved, it's been odd to see how pro baseball leagues have made great efforts to keep it away from the sport. Even if you aren't a fan of the game, you're probably familiar with the cultural meme of an umpire blowing a key call and altering the course of the game.
Thus, it's significant that for the first time ever, sensors and a computer have called balls and strikes for a professional game. In a minor league game between the San Rafael Pacifics and the Vallejo Admirals, a three-camera system tracked the baseball's exact position as it crossed home plate, and a computer judged whether it was in the strike zone or not. The game went without incident, and it provided valuable data in a real-life example. The pitch-tracking system still has bugs to work out, though. Dan Brooks, founder of a site that tracks ball/strike accuracy for real umpires, said that for the new system to be implemented permanently, fans must be "willing to accept a much smaller amount of inexplicable error in exchange for a larger amount of explicable error."
Thus, it's significant that for the first time ever, sensors and a computer have called balls and strikes for a professional game. In a minor league game between the San Rafael Pacifics and the Vallejo Admirals, a three-camera system tracked the baseball's exact position as it crossed home plate, and a computer judged whether it was in the strike zone or not. The game went without incident, and it provided valuable data in a real-life example. The pitch-tracking system still has bugs to work out, though. Dan Brooks, founder of a site that tracks ball/strike accuracy for real umpires, said that for the new system to be implemented permanently, fans must be "willing to accept a much smaller amount of inexplicable error in exchange for a larger amount of explicable error."
The problem I have with this approach is the human element with its possible mistakes is what gives baseball a lot of its soul. First instant replay, now this? I'm all for progress and technology, but from where I sit on the couch and in the bleachers this is solving a set of problems that doesn't exist.
The thing is, I'm not so sure that I, as a fan, want to see the human element removed. Expanding the strike zone is a skill and a part of the sport. It's also a skill when the batsman shrinks or crowds the strike zone. The ability to adjust to a slightly different strike zone every night is also part of it.
Of course, none of this gets the ump out from behind the plate. There's still the swinging strike to consider. I don't know of any machine that can make that call automatically. For that matter, there isn't even an unambiguous rule for what counts as a swing, so there would have to be a rule change to even allow a machine to make the call unofficially. Even if that is taken over, there's still the foul tip and hit by pitch that the umpire will need to call. Not to mention plays at the plate.
I view myself as generally a baseball traditionalist. I hate the designated hitter rule. I mourned the addition of lights to Wrigley Field. I view replay review with suspicion.
Automatic balls & strikes seems like a good idea to me.
One of the side effects of replay is that the MLB has become much more civil. Instead of losing their shit, MLB managers calmly wait for the replay review.
For whatever reason, baseball had been unusually tolerant (compared to other sports) of long arguments from players and managers. This trickles down to the way people behave at amateur baseball games. So I'm hopeful that replay will eventually change the expectation for behavior in amateur games without replay. And following behind, automatic balls and strikes will do the same.
-Dave
There's an interesting oddity to the way umpires are currently graded with pitch F/X. Pitches that cross the front of the plate at the batter's knees but then drop before reaching the catcher are strikes by the definition in the rulebook. Those pitches don't look like strikes to the casual observer, so umpires stopped calling them strikes, basically so they don't get yelled at. Batters know this and generally position themselves at the extreme back of the batter's box to give themselves the most time to react to a fastball.
The automatic system currently grades umpires with the standard that balls and strikes have traditionally been called, NOT with a strict adherence to the actual rulebook zone. So when the MLB implements the automatic balls & strikes, will it be the actual strike zone or the traditional zone? Robot umpires don't care when people yell at them. If it's the actual rulebook zone, pitches that bounce before the catcher will be called strikes. Batters will have to adjust by moving up in the box to hit that low curve ball.
-Dave