On the Fairness of the PITCHf/x Box Being Shown on TV

Recently, yours truly was a guest on the Offspeed Podcast talking about the plausibility of robot umpires being used in baseball. Not humanoid robots, really — more like a system of lasers or cameras similar to what the San Rafael Pacifics used recently in a game/publicity stunt. I mentioned how PITCHf/x could be better utilized to monitor and grade umpires, bringing a level of accountability to the whole process. There are a lot of caveats that go into all that, and I would suggest you listen to the episode to get all my thoughts if you are interested, as I’m not keen on regurgitating all of them here. But as I was watching Monday’s Astros/Rangers game, my thinking started to change. There were some questionable calls, as there always are in any game. But we only knew they were really questionable because of the broadcast’s replay and the use of PITCHf/x technology. It got me wondering; is it fair that we as fans are the only people that get to see the strike zone in real time?

Criticisms of the home plate umpire are nothing new. Way back when, fans in the bleachers would argue over balls and strikes. Then TV came, and fans could yell at it over a call. A little later, instant replay was brought into the fold, further increasing the fans’ abilities to form opinions on where a pitch crossed the plate. High definition video did the same. And recently, almost every network has utilized some form of PITCHf/x visualization on screen. Some do it in replays, others have it emblazoned on the screen for every pitch. Never before have we been able to criticize umpires, hitters, and pitchers over their respective opinions on the strike zone to such a degree. And the weirdest part as that we are the only people who can see it. That’s kind of nuts. In essence, we have a better understanding of the strike zone than those who are in charge of it, or whose successes or failures depend on it. It’s an odd situation we’ve put ourselves in. And I’m wondering if something doesn’t need to change.

The first option would be for MLB to enforce some sort of rule and abolish the PITCHf/x box in broadcasts all together. As complaining about home plate umpire calls is in the list of Top One Favorite Things for a Baseball Fan to Do, I don’t really see that happening. I would imagine most fans wouldn’t care (or would even applaud) if the permanent box went away, but it would certainly be missed on replays. FOX would get a slew of complaints during the postseason if our favorite umpire-measuring tool was to go away. Like $10 beer and God Bless America, it’s part of the game now, like it or not.

The second option would be to figure out a way to have the strike zone represented in real life — some sort of hologram displaying the dimensions for the pitchers, hitters, umpires, and fans to see. I understand that this would be SUPER WEIRD. But it would be effective. In all honesty, if we went through all the trouble of installing this system, we could probably do away with the home plate umpire all together and have a laser/camera setup make the decisions for us. This is the premise of the #RobotUmpsNow movement. It would be extremely accurate, and honestly would give a solid foundation to one of the more important dimensions of the game.

This seems foreign, because until very recently, it wasn’t possible. Baseball is full of lines, but strike zone lines (with the exception of the actual home plate) were never available. But it’s 2015, and it is possible now. So why hasn’t baseball adopted it?

Every other sport has lines painted where the boundaries of the game lie. This lets the players and officials know when that boundary has been crossed. We wouldn’t dream of playing a football game on a field without the goal lines. Though ball placement by officials in the NFL can leave things to be desired, the first down line is still represented by a movable arrow on the sidelines. Hockey, tennis, EVERY OTHER SPORT has visible lines depicting what’s in play and what’s out. Yet, in baseball, the strike zone — the area where every play begins — does not.

Except if you are watching at home, that is. Umpires (allegedly) get graded on their interpretation of a strike zone that they cannot see. There are dimensions written in the rules, certainly. But remember that the whole balls/strikes thing was invented when pitchers threw underhand and curve balls were illegal. Dudes are humping it up over 100 MPH and dropping nasty breaking balls in our current game. Isn’t it a little unfair to ask the human eye to interpret that data on the spot?

Yes, it takes away certain aspects of the game — I’ve even argued this myself. Some pitchers possess the ability to widen the strike zone over the course of the game. Some catchers have the ability to frame pitches to make them look like strikes. These are tangible skills that would be reduced should a concrete strike zone be put in place. But sometimes you have to break a few eggs, especially when the fairness of the sport is in question.

I doubt any of this will change in my lifetime. I’m not even sure it should. Baseball is a sport built on and respectful of tradition — some times to a fault. That doesn’t erase the fact that it’s still being played with an ostensibly-invisible boundary that we certainly have the capability of representing visually. When the fans have access to slow-motion replays at 60 frames per second of pitches traveling over a superimposed strike zone, and everyone actually involved in the game has to just kind of guess and wing it, it creates a strange dichotomy. Science and technology have created bigger and stronger athletes, faster pitches, and a system that can track a ball’s position in a split second. And for the most part, we’re asking umpires to just eyeball it. I’m not quite sure in whose interests that serves. The fans are better equipped to calls balls and strikes than the umpires now. Perhaps it’s time that everyone on the actual field of play are afforded the same luxuries that we are.

(Image via ESPN)





David G. Temple is the Managing Editor of TechGraphs and a contributor to FanGraphs, NotGraphs and The Hardball Times. He hosts the award-eligible podcast Stealing Home. Dayn Perry once called him a "Bible Made of Lasers." Follow him on Twitter @davidgtemple.

7 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Mike Kurtz
8 years ago

Why not just build some AR solution like HoloLens into the Ump’s mask? If we’re concerned about accuracy, the ump will be wired into a real-time representation of the strike zone to check his call. Since pitchf/x isn’t perfect (particularly around the top of the zone, there isn’t a visible thing on the field to cause more arguments when the ump exercises his judgment and make a call that pitchf/x doesn’t like. We’d still have live umps and be able to scream at the TV, too. Seems like the best of all worlds.

E
8 years ago

do the pitchfx operators join the umpire union then?

erik
8 years ago

Automated balls and strikes is far more reasonable and impactful than replay, and we already have that, so I don’t see the problem.

Jason
8 years ago

Is it possible to have a visible rectangular prism that shows up in the air (that also adjusts to the bodies of the various batters)? Asking seriously. Assuming the real-life mid-air visible lines are possible, players could have sensors in their uniforms that are placed on their body at the top and bottom of the strike zone.

You write, “EVERY OTHER SPORT has visible lines depicting what’s in play and what’s out.” Pretty obviously, so does baseball, to the exact same physical extent possible. Baseball has lines painted on the surface of the playing field just like they do in football and tennis. In football, do they have visible planes in the air extending up from the goal, side, and end lines to demarcate the boundaries of the end zone as they exist by rule? No, no they do not. Similarly, baseball the actual edges of home plate, foul lines and the fair pole, and so on, but can we really project a strike zone cube in the air that everyone can see in real life?

Baseball could use the same technology tennis does for foul lines — that’d be cool. But for you to say all other sports are ahead of baseball in visually demarcating spatial boundaries doesn’t seem accurate.

Jason
8 years ago
Reply to  Jason

(“baseball *has* the actual edges of home plate”)

Jason
8 years ago
Reply to  Jason

Wish I could edit. Just realized also – would the strike zone not actually be a solid representation with pentagonal faces? The debate around how to standardize the zone boundaries alone is one of the most daunting ideas here.

I do agree that it would be awesome to have a truly fair way of calling balls and strikes, though.