Thank you for indulging my desire to write some fiction over the past two months. It’s cleansing for my brain when school is done, and I know the kids get a kick out of seeing what I come up with. Now back to some ideas that have been gestating in my brain over that time.
Recently, I was watching the Minnesota Twins play the Chicago White Sox. The Twins had a big lead, but Chicago had loaded the bases with nobody out and a run in already. On a 3-2 pitch, Kyle Gibson threw what was clearly a low pitch. The batter started toward first, assuming he had walked and driven in another run.
Until the home plate umpire called him out on strikes. The player was miffed and the manager got ejected for arguing balls and strikes once he emerged from the dugout. I was happy that the Twins then went on to work out of the inning without allowing any more runs. But I was still bothered.
The pitch was clearly a ball. It wasn’t even borderline. Every replay showed it coming across the plate below the knees, easily lower than the strike zone. I’ve seen this a number of times this season when a batter has two strikes, and it’s difficult to swallow, even when it helps my favorite team.
For as long as baseball has been in existence, umpires have taken heat. I catch heck for ball and strike calls, even if I’m confident I made the right call. But I don’t always make the right call. And neither do major league umpires. Still, nobody’s career is at stake and there aren’t 40,000 people watching when I make calls.
Is it time for a computer to call balls and strikes? That’s the question the independent Atlantic League is trying to answer for baseball. The robo-ump debuted during their all-star game last month and will continue to be used the rest of the season. Basically, cameras use 3-D Doppler radar to determine if the pitch is a ball or a strike. That is relayed to the home plate umpire (Yes, he’s still there) via Wi-Fi for him to call ball or strike. The umpire does have the ability to overrule the computer on egregious mistakes such as a ball hitting in front of the plate and bouncing over the plate in the strike zone.
Is this the future of baseball? I think it is. At first I wasn’t sure about this. As an umpire, I know I’m only human and will make mistakes. But I love the human element of officiating in all sports. Still, after watching a lot of missed calls in key situations this year, it might be time. Many predict that within five years, you’ll see robo-umps at a big league ballpark near you. They already use instant replay to check close plays in the field, so this seems like a given.
But the Atlantic League is making other changes to try and see if MLB might like to adjust, especially when it comes to the pace of the game. With few exceptions, mound visits aren’t allowed unless you are changing the pitcher. MLB already limits this much more than used to happen. A good catcher knows when they need to go reset some things or settle down the pitcher. A good coach knows the same.
Pitchers in this league are also required to pitch to at least three batters. MLB too often uses these specialists to get out one batter before bringing in another new arm. Come on, if you can pitch in the big leagues, you should be able to get out right- and left-handed batters. When we get to the playoffs, the games drag on interminably due to all the pitching moves. This will make managers think ahead quite a bit before making a move to the bullpen.
If you’ve watched major league games in the last few years, you’ve seen defensive shifts on nearly every batter. With analytics taking over the game, every team has numbers on where every batter is most likely to hit the ball and shifts their defenders, even multiple times per at-bat. At a game I attended this year, I quite often saw the shift disappear when a batter had two strikes. Since hitters don’t know how to bunt well, teams will continue to shift on defense, often having three fielders on one side of the field. The Atlantic League doesn’t allow any of this. Play defense, period. Hitters who have been taught to drive the ball up the middle might get rewarded again.
The one change I don’t really like in the Atlantic League is the ability to steal first base. That’s right, you can steal first from home. As crazy as that sounds, they are tinkering with the chance to take first base on any pitch in your at-bat if the catcher doesn’t catch the pitch. The only time you can do this at any other level is if the catcher doesn’t cleanly catch strike three. Now, on an 0-2 count, if the pitcher wastes a pitch in the dirt and it gets by the catcher, I might sprint to first and take my chances.
I don’t really like this rule. Make the batter earn the base. It would be interesting to see how often a guy like Byron Buxton of the Twins, one of the faster guys in the majors, would try this, but no, just no.
Change can be good. For Major League Baseball in the near future, robo-umps will be good. I suppose you could yell at the computer if you didn’t like the calls, even if it won’t be nearly as interesting as telling the umpire you’ve seen better eyes on a potato.
Word of the Week: This week’s word is cacophemism, which means a harsh expression used in place of a milder one, such as, “So many people used the cacophemism Three Blind Mice to the basketball referees that they vowed never to ref there again.” Impress your friends and confuse your enemies!