The 2019 World Series was one of the most entertaining matchups baseball fans have seen in the
past decade.
It was a heated battle between the Washington Nationals, the Houston Astros and the umpires.
Sound weird doesn’t it?
That’s because it’s not how the game is supposed to be played, but poor officiating is making it this way.
The series itself was entertaining to watch, but the calls from umpires were unbearable and showed that it’s finally time to move onto automated officiating.
The main implementation of electronic officiating should come in the form of an electric style strike zone. This would mean eliminating the home plate umpire from making calls on balls and strikes.
MLB has already taken notice of this idea with commissioner Rob Manfred announcing that minor leagues will have automated strike zones in 2020.
Manfred told MLB Network that “the technology exists” and if MLB has the means to make an automated strike zone, it might as well take it.
The decision to start implementing an automated strike zone could not have come sooner with Boston University reporting that there were around 34,000 missed ball and strike calls in 2018 alone.
This is outrageous and something that changes the fate of many games.
An argument can be made that keeping the umpire behind the plate adds a human aspect to the game and is faithful to baseball’s roots, but that’s just wrong.
On MLB’s website, the definition of the strike zone is “the official strike zone is the area over home plate from the midpoint between a batter’s shoulders and the top of the uniform pants.”
The definition is not, “the area of which the umpire chooses to be the spot of accuracy,” because that would be flat-out dumb.
Every game that is aired live has a digital batter’s box that viewers can see.
It quite literally shows if the balls missed the zone or not and if the ball had movement.
This technology already eliminates the umpire because people at home can see for themselves if an umpire’s call is correct or not.
Why can’t an official sit up in a box and watch the same digital image that everyone else watches and have calls made that way?
I guess that just makes too much sense to implement.
The game of baseball should be the pitcher and catcher versus the batter, rather than the umpire changing the dynamic of the duel.
The balls and strikes automation will reduce the amount of blown calls behind the plate, but having officials on TV monitors analyzing and calling plays in the field will prevent missed calls as a whole.
The most painful missed call during the World Series to watch was Trea Turner of the Washington Nationals being called out for interference in Game 6 for running into Yuli Gurriel of the Houston Astros glove.
The call prevented a run from scoring and was the first out in the 7th inning in what was a crucial game.
The decision made tempers run high as well with Nationals manager Dave Martinez getting ejected after he erupted off the bench following the call.
If replay was used in an officiating booth, the call would not have caused such an uproar with umpires getting to see the play in real time and making the accurate call.
Manfred’s decision to start the process toward automated calling is a huge step for baseball and will save the game from poor officiating once the implementation finally makes it to the pros.
Until then, however, it will be another season with a few thousand missed calls in 2020.
