The automatic ball-strike (ABS) challenge system coming to baseball is ushering in a new era of baseball strategy. In a sport that has seen much change in recent years, this installment merely adds to the heated debate surrounding human umpires, but it shouldn’t be as dire as many think.
To many, ABS is the first step on the eventual path to “robot” umpires replacing the human ones that have defined the game’s boundaries since its inception. Their argument is simple: human umpires make incorrect calls that have too large an impact to be defended as “just part of the game.” The ABS system is better understood as an acknowledgement of inevitable human error in a game that depends on umpires as a central part of its competitive fabric.
Important historical context of the umpire
Believe it or not, there was a time when baseball didn’t have umpires: the neutral officials in the game that call balls and strikes and determine a runner safe or out. It’s not hard to imagine how messy that could get once games started to matter more. Baseball appointed its first professional umpire in 1876, establishing the key, yet often overlooked, position that has been the answer to on-field disorder for more than a century.
Three years later, the president of the National League, the main professional baseball league at the time, organized the first official group of 20 men to serve as umpires for league games. From there, umpiring slowly became a real profession. In 1910, the umpire organizational chart was established, appointing the plate umpire as the umpire-in-chief and the rest as field umpires. Twenty-five years later, the first umpire training school was opened in Arkansas, creating a path for many aspiring umpires. Developments such as these and the 1953 induction of the first umpires into the National Baseball Hall of Fame reinforced just how established and respected the role had become.
Today, umpires are as central to baseball as anyone else on the field. Officiating a game of baseball is no longer something that can be undervalued. Several times the umpires have unionized and subsequently gone on strike for leverage at the negotiating table. And without fail, MLB and the umpires’ union have come to agreements to ensure their presence in the game. So, what changed? Why is there an apparent lack of trust in umpires in today’s game?
Trust begins to wane
With the growth of television came a whole new audience at home that could actually see baseball being played instead of only hearing it on the radio. This brought a lot more pressure onto the umpires making calls. The increase in visibility of umpires did not make them less important, but it made them more susceptible to criticism of a scale that earlier generations of umpires never had to deal with.
Think about watching a baseball game on your couch. Nearly every broadcast puts a white square on the screen, roughly outlining what might be the strike zone. What that white box doesn’t take into account is the variance in umpires’ strike zones and the difference in strike zones based on hitters’ heights. Even so, without fail, you’ll always find yourself questioning at least one call, no matter the moment’s weight.
The combination of visibility and the measurability on the part of the fans made umpires more vulnerable to public scrutiny. Officials in every sport get criticized, but baseball umpires hold a particularly powerful role within the flow of the game. The MLB proved it was open to the idea of correcting human error when it became the last of the major American sports leagues to introduce instant replay in 2008. Since then, the confines of instant replay in baseball have expanded, setting the stage for the ABS system.
Enter ABS
What are we getting with the ABS system? If you’ve watched any baseball or scrolled your timeline, there’s a chance you came across an ABS challenge. When the hitter, pitcher, or catcher taps the top of their helmet or hat immediately following a pitch, they are calling for an official challenge. For example, if a pitch is called a strike and the hitter at-bat doesn’t agree with the umpire’s call, they may tap the top of their helmet to get an official review.
The actual review is an incredibly accurate tracking of the baseball against a strike zone pre-determined by the current hitter’s height. The ball is measured as it passes through the middle of the plate, as opposed to the front of the plate. If the pitch being reviewed is touching the zone in any capacity, it is considered a strike. That means if 99.9% of the ball is outside the strike zone, but a smidgen is making contact with the zone’s edge, it is a strike. Both teams start with 2 challenges apiece. If a team is unsuccessful in challenging a call, they lose a challenge. If they are successful, they retain it. Already in the young MLB season, there have been some electric challenges that have fans excited, like this one that ended the game in epic fashion for the Baltimore Orioles.
Having a completely objective strike zone strays from how baseball umpiring has been conducted in the past, however the umpire still makes the initial call. The MLB isn’t automating the umpire. Umpires have been a part of professional baseball since 1876 and been a part of the Baseball Hall of Fame since 1953. MLB recognizes that. Human judgment has been a centerpiece of baseball, and will continue to be for the foreseeable future.
ABS represents the next step of change in a game that had long been opposed to change and it will make a direct impact on the quality of play, but not at the cost of “blue” behind the dish.
Inner Half 