Wouldn’t be nice if all we had to worry about was bad strike calls. But Obamessiah will fix that when he becomes president. He’ll nationalize baseball and replace human umpiresz with vision enhanced computer controlled cyborgs. See, problem solved..

Why not call balls and strikes with a machine and get it right, everytime.

Spoken like a true baseball fan. /sarcasm Why don’t you go fuck up another sport and leave this one alone?

Regards…

A couple of points – first, it would be monumentally simple, if you could first build a sensor that was able to discern height and location of a ball at the precise moment when it crossed home plate, to simply program in the heights of each of the players in the bigs, so that the machine would factor in the variability of a player’s height when determining ball v. strike.

Second, maybe it’s the purist in me, but part of the challenge of a baseball game is to determine how the ump is calling his strike zone, and to make adjustments to your pitch choice as a batter (and spot selection as a pitcher). This is one of the reasons why there are more home runs in later innings than early on – batters and pitchers tweak their game, and the team who tweaks quickest gains an edge, and the batters have a decided edge (this is also one advantage to playing at home, and thus batting last).

Last, this debate going on the bigs is typical of the ostrich-like approach to marketing the game that has been plaguing MLB since hulking batters were swatting dingers out of the parks at record distances, and all the talking heads could do was debate whether or not the baseball manufacturers were suddenly winding the internal strings tighter (remember the “lively ball” scuttlebutt?), willfully blind to the rampant ‘roid abuse going on in the game.

Definitely. This would be the single greatest advance in the history of baseball. For a pitcher to KNOW that a pitch in the same spot will be called the same way each and every time. You wouldn’t even take away the human element. Just give the umpire a tool, an indicator in his hand that allows him to make the right call each and every time.

How many times have you seen pitches hit the corner and be called a ball because the umpire was set up on the right shoulder of the catcher instead of the left shoulder.

The cry of every true fan of every sport to the officials is “call it both ways.” This would truly allow them to do so.

I’m a big proponent of using instant replay to help umpires tell what’s a home run and what isn’t. But leave the balls and strikes to the guys in blue. By and large, they do a pretty good job as it is. At the very least, they call things pretty consistently.

Still, if they did manage to institute such a system, I’m fairly certain Derek Jeter would find some way to argue with it. )

These umpires are just a pre 9/11 nanny state socialist big government hold overs from the Clinton years. Most of them are liberals anyway.

Exactly!

On the practical level, this proposed machine would only be useful for pitches that are “taken”, and that’s usually a matter of choice, either by the hitter or the coach. If the batter hits the ball, it doesn’t matter where it was in the strike zone, does it? If he swings and misses, it also doesn’t matter where it was in the ‘zone. Taking a pitch is almost always a matter of strategy, anyway, and a machine won’t change that. The good hitters hit the ball where it’s pitched. Yogi Berra hit a lot of bad pitches for homeruns, as I remember. I once saw him hit one out that was up around his eyes.

However errors being unpredictable can affect one team more than others.

For example an umpire working last nights game made one terrible call that likely could have cost the Twins in their game against the White Sox. (Denard Span obviously should have been rewarded a base for being hit by a pitch.)

As it turns out he coaxed a walk. However if he would have gotten out that very likely would have changed the complexion of the Twins big inning that led to them pulling within half a game of the White Sox.

Now that wouldn’t be fixed by such a machine. However a game can certainly turn on a ball being called a strike and vice versa. I think we should do what we can to get it right.

Maybe we should just go all the way, and play the game with robots; then everything would be perfect. Of course, we would also need robot fans, but so what? I guess the humans can find another game that suits our imperfect nature. Baseball should be perfect, with no human element. /sarcasm(wistful)

I don’t see the problem you are trying to solve.

Part of the rules of baseball has always been that the strike zone is different for different players. A natural swing for a 5’7″ person is not the same as one who is 6’7″.

Also one of the allures of baseball is the statistics. Changes like this hurt that.

Yes, let’s remove the human element from baseball; that’ll work. /sarcasm

Humans are imperfect; only totalitarians seek human perfection.

Unlike you I don’t watch the games to see the umpires screw it up.

It’s not about the equipment. The rules are set so both teams have access to the same equipment.

I’m not sure baseball would be as much fun if I couldn’t kvetch about the umpires.

I once saw him hit one out that was up around his eyes.

I was at that game,’54?,
sitting behind the Yankee dugout.
That’s why I chose
the picture of Yogi.

A simple solution from the British ;

Have stumps like cricket !! (and umpires have jobs too)

It does not have to be exactly the same stumps as in cricket.
but something physical to know for sure..it's strike out.
it simplifies game on the amateur level as well..

Imagine having a "conceptual" goal in soccer or hockey and umpire deciding whether it fell within the goal zone.