On Mike & Mike this morning the guys talked to Mike Schmidt about some
comments he made the other day involving a "force field" over home plate that would cause balls and strikes to be called automatically. Now, a force field, if such a thing existed, would cause the ball to bounce off of the strike zone, but otherwise I think Schmidt has exactly the right idea. As far as I'm concerned, the goal of any officiating is to make the right call all of the time, preferably as fast as possible. For many calls in sports there will always need to be a human element, but the strike zone can be determined with such precision that there's no reason to keep human error or judgement as part of the game. Now, I'm sure there are some technological hurdles to clear and it may not be quite as simple to implement as it first sounds but it seems like a worthy goal to me. Why settle for less when we can do it better?
1 comment:
As a terrible high school official, I'm all for doing what can be done to make the call right. I have been a little disappointed in how long some of the calls have taken so far this year to review. I understand they want to do their due process and see all 7 angles of the play, but I still think it can go quicker.
Has anyone been ejected yet? Kind of takes a little fun out of the experience as a fan, doesn't it?
I think it's only a matter of time before something else is calling the balls and strikes. The robo9000 or a bunch of lazers won't replace the home plate umpire, but it will be weird having a guy stand back there waiting to call a balk or a "play at the plate."
It's bad enough they've had to use instant replay to determine what the ball/strike count was for a batter.
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