The "Kill The Ump...I Mean Robo-Ump!" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Reading about the new experiment that will begin April 26 when the Lancaster Barnstormers open their 2019 baseball season in the independent Atlantic League.  I had to read the story twice before I believed what I was reading, but I guess it's true since we haven't reached April Fools' Day yet.  

Seems that computers will call the balls and strikes instead of an umpire.  The home-plate umpire will still be standing behind the catcher, but they will wear earpieces and be informed if the pitch was a ball or a strike by a TrackMan computer system that uses Doppler radar.  The umpire will have the ability to override the computer if they wish, but they better have a good reason to do so.  Perhaps a pitch is low and happens to hit the front lip of home plate before bouncing up and crossing the batter at his knees.  The computer will call that a strike, but the umpire can over-rule that if they actually see it.  Folks, this just isn't baseball!  I'm one who loves to yell at the umps, as my grandson can tell you from me being at his games, but that's part of baseball.  

Is he talking to me?  You bum!!

When I coached little league for 20 years I never coached a game where I didn't yell at the ump.  And, when I was an ump for 2 years, there wasn't a game where someone didn't yell at me.  So, reading this was a bit unsettling.  Now, I know that you want the ump to make the correct calls, but they are human.  And...this is why the league will go with computers...to eliminate the human mistakes.  So, in an effort to shorten baseball games, they are going to add computers?  Not going to happen.  And, that's not all.  The new league rules will see the distance from home to first shortened by three inches.  To do that they are making first base three inches bigger so you can get there faster.  Hey, I'm not making this up!  And, another rule change is the distance between the pitcher's mound and home plate will be 2 feet longer half-way through the season!  The distance from the pitching rubber to home plate has been 60 feet 6 inches since baseball began in 1893.  And now they are gonna change it!  You're kidding me!  This all began in 2001 when Major League Baseball first started to install a QuesTec system in a few ballparks to check how accurate the umpire really was when making his or her calls.  From 2009 to 2016 they used a different system known as PitchF/x.  If you follow baseball you have probably seen broadcasts where the screen will have a white box above home plate so you can see if the pitch should be called a ball or strike.  I found that the umpire was correct almost all the time, but I guess they want it 100% of the time.  One more change that will take place is the bases will become 18 inches square instead of 15-inchs square which has been that size since 1877.  Major league baseball will give it a try this year by using the Atlantic League which has 8 teams in it.  I assume they will evaluate the results and decide if they will have the Major and Minor Leagues do the same thing.  Other rules changes listed in the newspaper were: (1) Infield shifts will be restricted by requiring two infielders on each side of second base (this one I like!), (2) Infielders won't be allowed to be on the outfield grass (like this also), (3) Each pitcher must face at least 3 batters or complete the half-inning (makes sense), (4) Between inning breaks will be cut from 2 minutes, 5 seconds to 1:45 (like this also, but the sponsors will go nuts), (5) Mound visits are banned, except to change the pitcher or medical issues (good idea, but that's not baseball either).  I guess I will have to see what happens when I go to see the Barnstormeers this year.  As long as they don't try and stop me from yelling at the base umpires I guess I will be OK.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.