Baseball players want robots to be their umps
Baseball players want robots to be their umps
August 16, 2018
The sports world has been dealing with the human error of
referees and umpires for decades—it’s pretty much tradition at this point. But
with technology that can assess the game more accurately, some athletes are
ready to push the people calling balls and strikes off the field in favor of
technology.
The news: On Tuesday, Chicago Cubs second baseman Ben
Zobrist, one of the most vocal supporters of turning over baseball rulings to
software, used an argument with the umpire as a chance to advocate for a change
in the league.
“That’s why we want an electronic strike zone.”
—Zobrist, shortly before getting his first career
ejection
The comment reinvigorated a long-standing debate over
automation in sports.
You’re out! As you watch baseball on television, a
graphic is often overlaid on the action that shows in real time whether a pitch
is a ball or a strike. But human umps are still making the calls on the field
based on nothing but their own eyes. Increasingly, viewers and players would
rather have the technology take over.
The opponents: As Jason Gay wrote in the Wall Street
Journal, “Humanity—and all the imperfections that go with it—is an integral
part of sports, even when it means officials making costly mistakes. Instant
replay has its upsides, but has also turned into a soul-crushing time suck.”
A collaborative solution: Professional tennis could be an
example for baseball to follow. Rather than firing all the umpires, it has
decided to embrace human-software collaboration, giving the final word to the
“Hawk-Eye” program on disputed in-or-out rulings. The program is quick and
accurate, and it even evokes an immediate response from the crowd. If baseball
can find a system like this, it may be able to find a way for the
traditionalists and tech fanatics to live in harmony on the diamond.
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