Calling Balls and Strikes Correctly (Without Robots)

I would absolutely love it if Robot Umpires made calls. “You have, THREE, strikes and, TWO, balls. You are, OUT. There are, THREE, outs. MARINERS, are up in the, BOTTOM, of the, NINTH, inning.”

It seems to me that instant replay should be very easy to integrate into baseball without delaying the game really at all and without making umpires upset. However, instead Bud Selig chose to integrate it with HR calls in such a way as to delay the game as much as possible and so that it couldn’t effectively be extended to other types of plays.

What he should have done is as follows. Add an extra member to every umpire crew (more jobs makes umpires happy). Then have this guy (or rotate them like normal) sit up in a special booth with assistants that each club would provide. This booth will be equipped with replay access similar to broadcasters. Then wireless give all the umps on the field a way to communicate with this ump in the booth real time.

Generally speaking within about 20-30 seconds or so of a bad call being made that the manager comes out to argue, the broadcasters have whether it was a good call or not. No reason the extra ump with assitants wouldn’t be able to have it that fast as well. So about the time the manager gets out there to argue, the ump on the field would know if the call was correct or not and will be able to uphold it or not accordingly. The manager (on both sides), would then have absolutely nothing to argue about. Regardless of what they think, the correct call would have been made then and they’d know it. This would actually save some time as arguments between managers and umps would be really short, probably most of the time something like “manager: hey…. (interrupted). ump: already got the word, it was a correct call. go sit down”. And on the flip side of that, if the call was changed, the opposing manager would have nothing to argue about, because the change would have been made because of the instant replay showing the call was wrong.

There is always potential that managers might then abuse this and come out and argue more calls then they would have otherwise, however rules could be put in place on how many calls a game could be argued or things like that. Again, given how quick the decisions would be made, the delay would be so short that you could allow quite a few. And during most games, there really is generally only a couple times a game these types of situations come up.

I think umps would be happy with this system because they get more jobs. They also retain the ability to call things as they see them the vast majority of the time and the one or two times a game they have to go to instant replay, they get the satisfaction of knowing the correct call was made and the game wasn’t really delayed much at all. The ump behind the plate could also get feedback on how their strike zone is looking and what not during the game. They’d like this too, as umps get graded on this stuff and in the end, they do want to call the game perfect every time (most of them anyways ;-).

Or as the above article indicates on the ump behind the plate they could give them a little screen to show them the pitch f/x data. On that method, I’d be worried about a ball hitting the umps mask and shattering the screen so close to the umps eyes though. That would have to be figured out.

I want to see Lou Piniella kicking sand at a Terminator umpire!

How about just an earpiece inside the mask that makes one sound for a ball and a different sound for a strike. It would be very easy to tie it in with a computer running pitch/fx, using a wireless earpiece and battery as already mentioned.

Nobody but the ump would hear it, and this would intrude less on the ump’s field of vision.

I am on the more traditional side of baseball fandom, preferring all-human call making and no replay appeals. However, I like this idea because it doesn’t add interruptions or remove a human from the role of arbiter. (My old fashioned ways are limited to watching the game. I am all for the analytic revolution slowly occurring in a few front offices.)

I think this proposal would create a more uniform strike zone, a great thing that might not be possible without some high tech aids.

I think an electronic touchscreen/tablet could also work really well. Simply replace the clickers he uses to count balls and strikes with a tablet that he has that can display the pitch/fx stuff graphically so an umpire has the option of comparing how he thought a ball broke directly with how the pitch/fx did.
You could also have an electronic copy of the rulebook on there in case there ever needs to be a clarification/explanation. It wouldn’t have to be very large (I’m thinking kindle sized) and might be more receptive by the umpires if it has a nice GUI.

Introduce the prototype at lower levels of play, and it will make it’s way up to the upper levels. If you really can do it, get it patented and get rich. I really like your idea, and I hope you back up your proposal with a product. Keep us posted!

I wouldn’t want a 3 second delay between each pitch and the call or something.