Quote:
Originally Posted by _Sir_Charles_
I'd be in favor of using the computers to evaluate and discipline the umpires. If an umpire is shown to miss balls/strikes at an inordinate rate, I'd be fully in favor of demoting that umpire to the minors. But I do NOT want a computer calling the balls/strikes in a game.
And by the way, that video Doug posted in that initial post, 6 inches outside...sure, it's a ball...but lets not act like it's such a blatant error that we get bent out of shape over it. That's just slightly more than one baseball's length outside. Sure it's a mistake, but I've seen worse mistakes on plays with balls that are trapped, or close plays at a base, etc. Are we going to have computers call those to? Implement replay to make an already long game even longer? I vote no.
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Why can't we? The problem is that baseball has a dumb replay system to begin with. Don't send the entire crew into the tunnel to watch the video. Have 3-4 umpires working in New York watching the replays. By the time the manager gets hit butt out of the dugout and tells the umpire what he wants to review, we folks at home already know whether the right or wrong call was made. Have the crew chief hooked up with an ear piece. When the right call comes in on a disputed play, the guy in New York tells him the result of the play and that is that. It would take less than a minute. Balls and strikes are already being done. Just make it happen (and be sure to calibrate the system an hour before each game). It isn't difficult. It is actually incredibly easy given that we already have every piece of technology in place except for an ear piece and a few umpires sitting in New York in front of some TVs.