Robot ump making calls at Round Rock Express games
AUSTIN, Texas — Baseball is about to take a giant tech leap into the future. When it comes to bad calls the umpires usually get, “All of it,” Round Rock Express General Manager Tim Jackson said.
As a former player, Jackson says umps have heard every insult in the books.
“From everybody,” Jackson said. “In the stands. On the field. In the dugouts. From on the field, tv viewers. They get it from every which way.”
But, the days of yelling at the ump for a missed call may soon be over.
Major League Baseball is testing out new technology at minor league ballparks like Dell Diamond.
It’s called the Automated Ball-Strike system or ABS. But its nickname is the “Robot Ump.”
“So, we have 8 total cameras,” Jackson said as he walked around Dell Diamond pointing at the cameras. “You’ll see them here on the third base side. We have three cameras that run along here. Two there above high home. We have two more here along the first base side and obviously the all-important one here in center field there about the 407 mark.”
Before the batter even steps into the batter’s box the system has already calibrates his height. Then the eight cameras on the field track his every motion.
The system is always watching and tracking. They’ve got a strike zone from about mid chest to the top of the knees and there’s a strike box, a digital box that tracks the strikes and anything out of it is a ball.
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It works like the “Hawkeye” system professional tennis has been using for years.
“So just like you’re watching Wimbledon and if they ever question a call it’ll take it there and know exactly where that ball was,” Jackson said. “So that’s what this system does and there’s a speaker in the ear of the umpire that tells them every pitch ball or strike.”
Round Rock Express catcher Matt Whatley has mixed feelings about the new technology.
“As a hitter I like it,” Whatley said. “As a defender for my job I’m not the biggest fan of it.”
He says it takes away from the art of catching and managing a game through glove movement to make a ball look like a strike. But with this technology there are no gray areas.
“With no ABS you’re trying to just trick people,” Whatley said. “You know like, trick the umpire you know because that’s the art of it. With ABS there is really none of that.”
Now during weekend games each team gets three chances to challenge the call.
“Fans have seemed to like it,” Jackson said. “They don’t know what’s going on half the time. I think the challenge game stuff they enjoy. They love seeing the ABS on the screen as well.”
And when the fans yell at the ump, they just point to the big screen.
“That was a ball blue,” Jackson yelled jokingly. “I can’t believe you called that! Now you can look up on the screen and see it. I think it’s all moving in the right direction.”