Chicago Cubs: The electronic strike zone is coming to baseball

(Photo by Bob Levey/Getty Images)
(Photo by Bob Levey/Getty Images)
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(Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images)
(Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images) /

The electronic strike zone graced headlines this week – as the Cubs and the other 29 big league teams briefly believed it would be coming to games this spring.

As Cubs fans turned the page on the annual Cubs Convention, Major League Baseball made one of the biggest announcements in the history of the game – at the very least, the next biggest thing since instant replay. The league did so in passing fashion by MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred, who tends to casually drop bombs during his public appearances.

Within 24 hours of the announcement, the MLB umpires’ union clarified what exactly this would mean once Spring Training games kick off next month.

“Reports that MLB will use ‘robo-umps’ to call balls and strikes in spring training games this year are completely inaccurate. … Our understanding is that a camera-based tracking system will be running in the background during some spring training games for technology development and training purposes. But any game in which a Major League Baseball umpire is working will have a human calling balls and strikes.”

I give Manfred credit. Maybe he wanted fans to believe this was coming in mere weeks to gauge public sentiment. Would fans be tarring and feathering his likeness in Times Square? Would the fans in Houston, already reeling from the consequences of the recent sign-stealing scandal, be able to take another shock? If that’s true and Manfred carefully planned this little snafu, than he would be pleasantly surprised at the generally positive way most fans took the news.

Of course, the sports writers reported it right away because let’s face it: it would be historical. Technically its borderline historical right now even with the league just running the system in the background during games, but since it (at least for now) won’t have any impact on the game, it’s not as sexy – but it’s trending that way, regardless.

So where is the game at with this technology Manfred told the whole world about this week? Based on what we heard from the commissioner, it seems like we’re at the doorstep of tremendous change in the game. Will we be ready for that leap? How will it impact the game itself and the players?

(Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
(Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images) /

Chicago Cubs: Technology always invades

I grew up with William Shatner Star Trek, Jetsons cartoons, Lost in Space and “My Favorite Martian” on the television. Landing a man on the moon had changed our world and the future was playing out before our very eyes. As a kid, it was like an “Invasion of the Body Snatcher’s” moment in time, as technology, seemingly overnight, crept into our lives.

I could see it happening around me as I showed up for school one year and there were computers in the class for the first time. Later came printers and then actual color monitors and floppy discs. This was the way of the world now.

That’s the point of this little history lesson: technology always invades.

You never see the world making technological advances and pulling back. It’s always forward. That’s how it works. Most times, technology is moving forward in a positive way and, at other times, not so much.

Let’s take the cell phone as a prime example of technology moving the world forward with both positive and negative impacts. We have all the resources of the world at our disposal in our pocket, but you’d be hard-pressed to go out and not see people looking down at their phones all the time. We’ve moved forward as a society, but we’ve lost out on seeing each other and building relationships because of it.

So it will be with baseball; we will gain but we may also lose when the electronic strike zone really does take effect.

(Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
(Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images) /

Chicago Cubs: Where would we be without technology in baseball?

Technology helped the game take a huge lead forward when games became televised. Of course, WGN brought the Chicago Cubs to the entire country – helping the organization develop a global fan base.

More recently, technology struck again with instant replay and managerial reviews. However, the line was always drawn among baseball traditionalists that balls and strikes are called by a “human” umpire.

Now technology is about to invade that ‘untouchable’ aspect of the game, the umpire’s sanctum. In less than thirty days, the first Cubs Spring Training games will begin at Sloan Park in Mesa.  Running in the background similar to last season, the electronic strike zone will be calling the pitch independently without any consequence to the game.

While those around MLB try to downplay the automated balls-and-strikes software and say the technology is a few years away; I keep thinking about how convinced it seemed like Manfred was, saying the ESZ was coming this spring. If that day does, indeed, come soon – how will it work? What will the umpire’s role be and how will it be implemented?

(Photo by Jon Durr/Getty Images)
(Photo by Jon Durr/Getty Images) /

Chicago Cubs: How the ESZ will work during games?

Growing up with all those major technological advances happening in such a short time, I tend to trust technology more than others. I basically want the ruling to be correct – period. Why not take some ambiguity out of the process to get a fairer result for everyone?

Last season, Chicago Cubs utility man Ben Zobrist turned to an ump after getting what he thought a bad call and basically said that’s why players want an automated zone. Of course, the real-life umpire threw Zobrist out of the game for that comment.

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Zobrist was only expressing what many fans and players want: a fair call on balls at the plate. Manfred knows this and now the technology is even better according to Manfred.

“The current strike zone design is actually three-dimensional,” he said, “and a camera is better at calling a three-dimensional strike zone than the human eye.”

The three-dimensional camera can look all the way around the ball to see if a pitch was in or out of the strike zone. Players will still have a human umpire there behind the plate watching every pitch in case the ESZ falters or fails to tell the umpire whether a pitch is a strike or a ball.

Umpires will wear a tiny earpiece and receive the call through it. Then the umpire will deliver the call on the field. To fans it will look like a normal game. On check swings and field calls the umpire and crew will make the call as it was always done.

Now the official word is that it will be about three years until the ESZ is fully implemented throughout MLB during regular season games.  Under the new contract with umpires, the league has agreed to make umpires part of the process when the technology finally does come on board. Umpires want a slow introduction of the ESZ as opposed to Manfred who seems to think the technology will solve a lot of the fights and disputes as reported by Matt Vautour of Mass Live

“We believe over the long haul it’s going to be more accurate,” Manfred said. “It will reduce controversy in the game and be good for the game.”

Of course it will, but we will lose some of that emotional response we see in the game today since players will know the umpire behind the plate is not actually making the calls.

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It was exciting to believe for 24 hours that the ESZ was coming full-time to Spring Training 2020. But don’t worry –  it will be here soon enough and baseball will be changed forever. Technology always invades.

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