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A small, but notable moment in baseball history occurred this week. In a US minor-league game between the San Rafael Pacifics and Vallejo Admirals, the home plate umpire did not call balls and strikes. Instead, a computerized video system was used to make the determinations, which were relayed by the game's announcer to the crowd cheering on the home team—and checking out the system's performance—at Albert Park in San Rafael, California.
The system, Pitchf/x from Chicago-based Sportvision, isn't new to baseball. It already provides data for evaluating players and umpires, and it helps TV viewers see where a pitch lands relative to the strike zone. But on July 28 it was used to make actual calls, marking the first time that's happened in professional baseball.
Maybe if Major League Baseball can save money on umpires they can lower ticket prices.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by anubi on Saturday August 01 2015, @09:47AM
I would think the whole idea of having a computer call it is that supposedly the computer cannot be biased.
When I was a kid, I remember a radio-amateur friend of mine building a gadget that would call the game end when it got too dark. A little light sensitive photoelectric gizmo. It would wail when it got too dark.
It was made from a novelty car horn, a photoelectric tube, a relay, a couple of transformers and assorted parts.
It was something like this kind of stuff. [tubebooks.org]
They wanted his gadget because they wanted to make sure that no-one was trying to rig the game by calling an untimely end.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 01 2015, @11:26AM
http://m.mlb.com/news/article/2173765/ [mlb.com]
The balls, strikes and outs are recorded in Major League games by 70 umpires working in 17 crews of four (with two national rovers) working together in both leagues. Most came into the Majors after having worked from eight to 12 years on the average in the Minor Leagues for wages far below what they can earn in The Show.
A Major League umpire's starting salary is around $120,000, with the senior umps earning up to $350,000. That may sound like a lot for what seems to be six months' work, but the umpire's season is considerably longer than that with Spring Training, All-Star Games and postseason play added into the mix.