‘Robot umpires’ in Atlantic League
“Robot umpires” have arrived.
The independent Atlantic League became the first American professional baseball league to let a computer call balls and strikes Wednesday night at its All-Star Game. Plate umpire Brian deBrauwere wore an earpiece connected to an iPhone in his pocket and relayed the call upon receiving it from a TrackMan computer system that uses Doppler radar.
He crouched in his normal position behind the catcher and signaled balls and strikes.
“Until we can trust this system 100%, I still have to go back there with the intention of getting a pitch correct because if the system fails, it doesn't pick a pitch up or if it registers a pitch that's a footand-a-half off the plate as a strike, I have to be prepared to correct that,” deBrauwere said before the game.
It didn't appear deBrauwere had any delay receiving the calls at first, but players noticed a big difference.
“One time I already had caught the ball back from the catcher and he signaled strike,” said pitcher Daryl Thompson, who didn't realize the technology was being used until after he disagreed with a call.
Infielder L.J. Mazzilli said a few times hitters who struck out lingered an extra second or so in the batter's box waiting on a called third strike.
“The future is crazy, but it's cool to see the direction of baseball,” Mazzilli said.
The umpires have the ability to override the computer, which considers a pitch a strike when the ball bounces and then crosses the zone. TrackMan also does not evaluate checked swings.
Former Met Kirk Nieuwenhuis doesn't like the idea of giving umps veto power.
“If the umpire still has discretion, it defeats the purpose,” said Nieuwenhuis, who batted .221 with 31 homers in 978 at-bats with the Mets, Angels and Brewers.
ALL-STAR RATINGS DOWN
Baseball's All-Star Game had a record low television rating.
The American League's 4-3 victory over the National League on Tuesday night in Cleveland had a 5.0 rating and 11 share on Fox, according to Nielsen Media Research. The game was seen by an average of 5.93 million households and 8.14 million viewers.
That is down from the previous record low rating of 5.2 and 8.69 million viewers for the AL's 8-6, 10-inning victory last year.
The game averaged 8,302,000 viewers on Fox, Fox Deportes and Fox streaming services, peaking at 8,592,000 viewers from 9:15-9:30 p.m. EDT. It was the most-watched Fox primetime telecast since February and the network's mostwatched Tuesday night since the World Series opener between Boston and the Los Angeles Dodgers last October.