This technological advance planned for baseball one of the few that actually make sense
The robots are taking over. It’s simply a matter of time.
The latest evidence is the fact that baseball is inching even closer to an automated strike zone in which umpires would no longer be calling balls and strikes. Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred reportedly told The Athletic that automated strike zones will be experimented with in some minor league ballparks in 2020.
“Here’s our thinking on the automated strike zone: The technology exists. We have the technology,” Manfred said, per The Athletic. “We’re actually going through a big upgrade of that piece of our technology during this offseason. I think we need to be ready to use an automated strike zone when the time is right. It’s why we’re using it in Minor League Baseball next year, in some ballparks at least.”
Such a system has been tested in lower leagues and Manfred appears to want to perfect it before it would have the chance to jump the appropriate hurdles to one day make it to the majors.
“I think it’s incumbent upon us to see if we can get the system to the point we’re comfortable it can work,” Manfred said, via The Athletic. “I only would go to an automated strike zone when we were sure that it was absolutely the best it can be. Getting out there too early with it and not having it work well, that’d be a big mistake.”
Time will tell whether it works or not, but I think this is one technological step that actually makes sense. At a time in which leagues are trying all sorts of methods to make sure calls are right, there have been plenty that have been duds.
But having a consistent strike zone is one in which a computerized system should work. The traditionalists, of course, will say it’s taking the human factor out of the game, but they tend to say that anytime there change. (I would assume those of you are still boycotting self checkouts, right?)
Replay review is the biggest technological improvement that’s come thus far, and it’s had mixed reviews. In some cases, like in the NBA, you can more clearly see plays in which a player knocks a ball out of bounds that actually went off the fingertips of the opposing player, something that would never be caught with the naked eye.
On the other hand, you have instances like the NFL’s new pass interference replay challenge that have been consistently horrible. They’ve been consistent in the fact that they refuse to overturn a call nearly 100 percent of the time. That “tool” is worthless.
Hence is why when it comes to the robot takeover we need to merely use common sense. Some things work and others don’t.
Aside from theatrics that include manager and player tirades over balls and strikes, I see only positive with an automated strike zone. There would be no more guess work.
While hopefully it will be a long time until we build robots that will ultimately take over and kill us off, this is a good example of how we can co-exist. For once, we’re using the best of both worlds.
