For fans, players, and coaches alike, one of the biggest gripes in baseball is a bad umpire.
Like most sports, an official can make or break a game for a team. When they call a ball that should have been a strike, it could mean the winning hit.
When I was a scorekeeper, I saw a lot of coaches and players get angry with an umpire for a call they thought was wrong. Sometimes it would lead to an argument, and someone would get the boot if they went too far. But, it would rarely change the ball or strike.
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Even if umpires make a mistake, they’re only human and can only see so much. They go through training, and often spend years working their way up the ranks. However, they can still be wrong.
It’s human error that made it interesting for me when I heard about technology being introduced behind home plate, and was determining if a pitch being thrown was too high, low, or just right.
The NCAA baseball division 1 league in the United States introduced a system that uses a radar to track the ball as it goes to the catcher. The program has the height of each batter, because how tall someone is determines their strike zone. It puts everything together, and the umpires are informed of the computer’s decision via wifi.
In an article I read, it said Major League Baseball (MLB) was testing out the program in the minors to see if it could one day be used in the major leagues.
When you’re watching a Toronto Blue Jays game, or any other one for that matter, from home, a pitch tracker is on the screen to let fans know where the zone is and where the ball comes in.
While that’s very similar to the program, the umpires don’t see that from home plate. It doesn’t sway their opinion, nor does it tell them what the call should be.
I’m not really sure where I fall on this topic.
I can see the pros and cons from both sides, but I don’t know if it should be implemented. It would eliminate issues surrounding bad calls, but it would also phase out umpires altogether. I see them as a staple of the game, just as much as the players, coaches, and equipment.
Just because we can do something, does it mean we should do it?
Technology has certainly advanced sports over the years, and in some cases, it’s even improved them. We have more accurate information regarding times and speeds, but how far is too far? When does it stop being fun, and simply another thing that we can make easier by relying on a computer?
