June 23, 2012

Yet Another Call For Electronic Umpiring For Balls And Strikes

I believe every umpire should take an examination in which his ball-and-strike decisions are compared to some sort of photographic record of just where the pitches really were. They use radar and electronics for everything else. I don't know why it can't be done in baseball. ...

Some of the balls and strikes these fellows call are amazing. ...

These umpires are too inconsistent. Nobody knows just where the strike zone is.

Everybody else in baseball has to meet some sort of competition or have a tryout to make a ball club. Why shouldn't that be the case with the umpires?
Casey Stengel, Chicago Sun-Times
(reprinted in Baseball Digest, October 1960)

[Seen at Old Time Family Baseball, in A Brief History of Robotic Umpires]

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