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Major League Baseball Finally Begins Experimenting With Robot Umpires (espn.com)
"Baseball's potential future will be showcased in the independent Atlantic League this year, and it includes robot umpires..." reports ESPN, calling it part of "a wide variety of experiments that the Atlantic League will run this season as part of its new partnership with Major League Baseball."
While MLB has long tested potential rule changes in the minor leagues, its three-year partnership with the Atlantic League -- an eight-team league that features former major leaguers trying to return to affiliated ball -- offers the ability to try more radical rules. MLB has chafed at using technology to replace ball-and-strike-calling duties for umpires, fearful that it's not yet consistent enough to warrant implementation... [W]ith the TrackMan system installed at Atlantic League stadiums, MLB will have a trove of data to analyze and see the effect of doing so.
Other changes aim to speed up the game, including bans on visits to the pitcher's mound and shortening the amount of time between innings.
Other changes aim to speed up the game, including bans on visits to the pitcher's mound and shortening the amount of time between innings.
Strike 3! Please put down your bat. You have 30 seconds to comply.
And then one of them screamed "Umpire 3927 want to live!" during a Braves game, ran off the field, and killed two hot dog vendors.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
The rule changes are interesting, I think adding the radar system for helping call balls and strikes will probably cause more problems than it will solve.
Many of the changes will result in a faster game, but they don't address what I see as the real time waster and energy drag - the throw from the pitching mound to hold a runner at first.
How about calling a ball on the batter each time that's done? It will mean that if the runner is a slug will stay close to the base but if the runner is fast, knowing that the pitcher will give up a ball throwing to first, will probably be more aggressive about getting ready to steal second. This will add tension to the game and eliminate the endless throwing balls to the first basemen, destroying the rhythm of the game.
Oh, if you're adding robots, don't forget the blackjack - and hookers!
Mimetics Inc. Twitter
TL;DL: Baseball is for pussies. But it is fun to play. Football is for men. But it hurts to play. Okay, my take on it.
Would you need sme kind of official explanation of the criteria used by the robot?
Most of the sports which have implemented automatic or instant replay review have made it part of a challenge system. The umpire or referee makes calls as before, but if the player or coach feels the call was wrong they can challenge it. Only then does it it get reviewed. Each side has a certain number of challenges they're allowed per game. If their challenge overturns the umpire's call, they get the challenge back. If it confirms the umpire's call, they lose the challenge (have one fewer for the rest of the game).
The system used in tennis is probably the closest analogue to how it might work in baseball. It's quick, so doesn't delay the game much. It adds drama to the game as everyone (players, refs, fans) gets to watch the replay together (not like the terrible system in football where only one guy in a hidden room somewhere watches it, and radios his decision to the field). And the result has been accepted by players and refs as definitive, so it actually cuts down on the amount of time wasted arguing over calls.
It also provides objective evidence if there's a ref or ump who's clearly doing a bad job. Which baseball badly needs since there are some umpires who have a reputation for calling a small strike zone, some for calling a large strike zone.
”MLB has chafed at using technology to replace ball-and-strike-calling duties for umpires, fearful that it's not yet consistent enough to warrant implementation...”
Has anyone claiming this ever actually watched an MLB game?
Look, if they want to argue something else - e.g. how the human element is part of baseball - sure, I can understand that. But let’s not pretend that even the older Pitch f/x system wasn’t significantly more consistent at identifying balls and strikes than major league umpires like C.B. Bucknor. Heck, Jeff Sullivan used to run a semi-regular series of posts on FanGraphs where he would identify (with video) the five most egregious ball / strike calls of the week.
#DeleteChrome
When the human umpire makes an error, it's only sometimes attributed to favoritism... most often it is because he's an idiot, and/or a blind man.
When the umpire machine is in error, it'll be a short hop to conspiracy theory.
Of course, you can theoretically rig either system; electronic oversight will just up the skill set required.
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
Although the poor calls have been annoying ever since we got instant/video replay, I fear this is going to be a mess. For one, I don't think electronically determining the strike zone is going to be as easy as most think: Batters have all kinds of different sizes, stances and motions. (Not to mention the other moving human(s) hunkered down next to the plate.) And that's on a clear day. Don't forget foul tips, etc.
And, I'm torn; I'm not really a fan of adding "tech" to such a (150-year old) game, but I have to admit the (umpires') subjectivity of it all has soured me over the years.
Or maybe they could stop stretching every conceivable brief stop in the action into 1-2 minute commercial breaks...
#DeleteChrome
Holding-a-runner may increase the playing-time ... tuff-tit that's the game of baseball. Gives everyone time too think. It's slow, BOSCO, baseball is like 19-th Century slow. Tuff tit. So stop with the QUICKLY ... watch ping-pong or basketball if that's your by-the-second thing. Otherwise have a dog and a brew. Watch the 3rd baseman slowly cheat toward the "hole" as strike-count increases . Put down yo iPAD checking current LYFT-fares & enjoy the feckin-A game BOSCO.
Of course commercial breaks are the only thing that made some of these games watchable last season. Wasnt there a gag in a Leslie Nielsen movie about how terminally boring baseball is?
And that's on a clear day.
Baseball isn't played if there is inclement weather. You can't just recycle your "self-driving cars will never happen" talking points into your "robot umpires will never happen" post.
Enigma
It is still better than the "rape of Autumn" known as football
They'll still play in a light rain, which is necessary (at least during the regular season) to make sure games get played at all. There ane many parts of the country where it's just not possible to schedule 81 home games without hitting weather a significant portion of the time, and baseball should not be played indoors (at least at the top level).
How is the Riemann zeta function like Trump rallies? Both have an endless number of trivial zeros.
baseball should not be played indoors
Is there some objective reason for that, or just some touchy-feely tradition thing?
I guess that's why they have rain delays. You can start a game pretty late at night as evidenced by the fact that people on the east coast will watch an entire game that starts close to 11 at night. Unless it goes into some crazy number of innings which hardly ever happens.
Umpires could have been replaced with reviewing footage back in the 70s but they didn't because bad calls are part of the sport. Why do this now? Are they just trying to save money? An Umpire can't cost that much can they? And the last thing the blue collar folks who watch baseball are gonna want is to see robots on the field.
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But Chris is a genius and a really nice person! I don't understand why he mentions pedophiles in his post although. He filmed the "Singing Lizards" he published on his site at my request and I can assure you that no pedophiles were around when I supervised the event.
He is also a good friend of mine and a precious collaborator in our LGBT community,
I am still trying to convince him to come out of the closet but this has to be his own decision.
As for myself, I did my coming out many years ago:
https://www.washingtonblade.co...
-Liz DeRoche
The Singing Lizards
hey glad you picked up on the identical gris anecdote under two "different" users
Chris' case is getting worse, he spends all day replying to himself as AC or using so called "sock puppet accounts" on Slashdot and now, on YouTube and other forums in order to grab attention!
Chris had an agenda to post anything he felt like on Slashdot which did not work well because it was based on his false beliefs that he had an infinite number of karma points as he wrote here several times.
Several people here explained to Chris that karma maxed out at some level like 50 or so but Chris kept on insisting that his python script had confirmed that he had millions of karma points!
Oh well, as I wrote before: "It isn't Chris' fault if he is the way he is. We do the best we can do with him and he is partially integrated into society. We try to cure his abnormal need for attention but he is kind of stubborn and won't listen to anybody."
For the valuable /. users that might already have read the following, please note that there is an important update.
IMPORTANT UPDATE:
Special Education for the Santa Clara County Office of Education has invested money to buy Chris a new chair:
http://www.keynamics.com/image...
Information about Christopher Dale Reimer and his type of autistic people:
Chris' type autistic people have obsessions about things normal people don't care. For example, Chris went haywire when he realized that there was a penny missing in his pocket change.
To calm him down, one of our educator pretended to have found it on the floor and gave a penny to him.
Chris' condition went even worse because he realized it wasn't the same penny!
Chris has an obsession with budgeting every penny. He doesn't understand that most people do not budget to the penny and have a flexible amount they allow for miscellaneous items.
I am Nancy Guerrero and I am Director of Special Education for the Santa Clara County Office of Education. We use Chris' (a.k.a. creimer,cdreimer) picture in our document because he is the hardest case we have ever had to handle:
http://www.sccoe.org/depts/stu...
Our artists were inspired by the low carb diet that Christopher follows scrupulously for the small lunch box and by the picture linked below for the rest. I am sure that you will notice the similarities such as the bump on the side of his chest and more:
https://ibb.co/gVad65
Please be easy on Christopher although, I am aware that some of our staff handling Chris post joke comments here and obvoiusly, the Santa Clara County Office of Education disapprove that behavior vehemently:
http://ibb.co/mRVSaG
But it isn't Chris' fault if he is the way he is. We do the best we can do with him and he is partially integrated into society. We try to cure his abnormal need for attention but he is kind of stubborn and won't listen to anybody.
Thank You dear users,
---
Nancy Guerrero
Director
Special Education
Santa Clara County Office of Education
Thanks Nancy!
But it seems like Chris is a victim here. He keeps on reading those SEO, youtube algorithm, basically get rich quick sites. He doesn't realize that he is the fish for them since they make money off him with their own schemes. Then, he wastes his time trying to implement what those sites suggest and he ends up disturbing people.
I mean, those crooks tell Chris that he has to build personal brands and he goes on the Internet and makes everything about himself public!
I believe we should bring this up at our next meeting. He might not be our only patient victim of such on-line abuse.
https://www.researchgate.net/p...
--
Silvia Bunge
Psychology Department
University of California, Berkeley
The older domed stadiums generally had artificial turf instead of grass. It's a harder surface and pretty rough on player's knees. The ball also bounces differently - it tends not to slow down as much on a bounce.
Tampa's domed stadium has a weird roof, and balls sometimes bounce off the ceiling lighting / support structures.
I think you can build a stadium that solves all the major complaints, but the cost estimates end up about triple the cost of an outdoor stadium, so teams usually just go for the outdoor stadium.
Baseball is unique in that regard. If a city can afford a dome for football they usually want one, aside from the charm of playing football in a blizzard.
There are often compelling reasons a baseball team wants an indoor field but they change over time. Only a few cities have had the topic come up again and again to the point where they take the idea more seriously. In an ideal world, I think most people would want all baseball games played outside. There will always be some team that needs a dome of course.
why are you wearing an eevblog t-shirt when you have only one post
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/...
Baseball is a human game played by humans. If you replace the umpire, may as well replace the batters pitchers catchers runners and fielders managers coaches bat boys...
I'll grant that if the field can be rolled outside to soak up sunlight when not in active use, then rolling a natural grass surface indoors to play proper baseball may be viable. It works in Arizona, although for football. My purism is much more about the surface on which the game is played, as it has had over a century to optimize for those conditions. The roof just makes it hard to maintain a proper surface, and in one particularly egregious case (Tropicana Field) the roof supports actively interfere with the game.
How is the Riemann zeta function like Trump rallies? Both have an endless number of trivial zeros.
I'm looking forward to https://futurama.fandom.com/wi... personally. This is a step in the right direction. If we could only enforce steroid consumption, maybe modern day baseball will be worth the while to watch...
What is the first thing you notice when you walk into a ball park? Ads. Ads everywhere. What dominates a televised game? Ads. Anything that fucks with the revenue stream created by ads probably is not going to be embraced by the league owners. Every gap in play has a queue full of commercials. Reducing those gaps reduces that revenue stream. For broadcast games, automated officiating means the multiple replays of disputed calls will stop, and that means all those revenue producing ads queued up for that particular gap in play will evaporate.
With that said, I will make a prediction. Baseball doesn't really have a time-out system, like American football, but I would predict the "TV time-out" the NFL introduced to enhance their ad revenue stream will be introduced to baseball if automated officiating ever is adopted.
I think it's several factors driving the increase in game time, but I actually think holding runners on first is probably less of a concern. Stolen bases last year were down 15% compared to 40 years ago, and most teams have analytics that tell them that losing runners from stolen bases ends up costing runs when they aren't on base when the next home run happens.
Bigger problems are that batters are less likely to swing, driving up pitch counts, which results in more pitcher changes, walks and strike outs. Conversely, you have pitchers that have gotten so good that hitters averages are down although home runs are up.
There has been talk of lowering the mound which would hopefully help hitters get the ball in play more, but it remains to be seen.
I think it's neat to hear more about these other leagues for major sportsballs: the XFL for [American] football, and the Atlantic League for baseball. I don't follow sportsball at all, but it's good to see there are alternatives to the main, singular entities that control vast swaths of entertainment in the "sports" categories.