“Robot umpires” are to debut in MLB in the next season as the game adopts the automated strike zone challenge system tested this pre-season, MLB announced on Tuesday.
MLB’s joint competition committee voted to approve the Automated Ball-Strike Challenge System, which allows players to challenge human umpires’ ball and strike calls via an electronic system run by the Hawk-Eye technology already widely used in sports such as tennis.
The system had already been widely tested in the minor leagues before being tried in pre-season games this year.
The MLB logo is pictured outside Angel Stadium in Anaheim, California, on Aug. Photo: AFP
Next year, MLB teams would be able to challenge two calls per game and get additional appeals in extra innings.
Only a pitcher, catcher or batter can challenge, without input from managers or players in the dugout.
Reviews would be shown as digital graphics on outfield video scoreboards.
Based on the system’s use during spring training games, MLB reckons that challenges take an average of 13.8 seconds. If a challenge is successful, the team retains that challenge.
Umpires have been declaring pitches in or out of the strike zone since the birth of the sport in the 1800s with plenty of disputes and argued calls since then.
MLB said in a statement on Tuesday that the two-challenge system would be a “middle ground between so-called ‘robot umps’ that could call every ball and strike, and the long-standing tradition of the natural human error that comes with human umps.”
However, it added that the change would mark “the first instance within the championship season at the game’s highest level in which the home-plate umpire’s ball-strike calls will not be ironclad.”
DOUBLE: Harry Kane has now netted 12 goals in six games, scoring his second hat-trick this season after Bayern’s opening Bundesliga match against Leipzig last month That man again. Harry Kane scored his second hat-trick of the season on Saturday to steer Bayern Munich to a 4-1 win at Hoffenheim for the best Bundesliga start any team has made after four rounds. The England captain scored before the break and converted two penalties after it to take his club tally to 12 goals in six games across all competitions — 13 goals in seven games including the German Supercup. Kane’s other hat-trick was in the Bundesliga-opening 6-0 rout of Leipzig. Bayern’s record of 12 points with a goal difference of 15-plus is the best after four rounds of the Bundesliga
SSC Napoli on Monday maintained their lead at the top of Serie A with a 3-2 win over promoted Pisa SC, which continued the champions’ perfect start to their domestic campaign. Lorenzo Lucca’s first goal for his new club, thumped home in the 82nd minute, ended up being the winning goal in a narrow win for Napoli, who have 12 points from four league matches. That put Napoli two points ahead of second-placed Juventus following their great rivals’ draw at Hellas Verona on Saturday, and three ahead of AS Roma and AC Milan who complete the top four. Napoli head to the San
Rwanda is to take center stage from today as the first African country to host the cycling world championships, in its latest use of sports to improve the country’s reputation. As it prepares for 5,000 cyclists and 20,000 spectators, Rwanda has spruced up its roads, created a network of cycle lanes and run multiple police drills. A poor, landlocked country in east Africa still widely associated with a horrific genocide in 1994, Rwanda has used various sports to revamp its image, attract tourists and impress investors with its organizational efficiency. It has spent lavishly on soccer sponsorship deals with clubs
An early goal by defender Nayef Aguerd on Monday gave Olympique de Marseille a 1-0 win over reigning champions Paris Saint-Germain, a rare success against their great rivals in a game delayed 24 hours by storms in southern France. Morocco defender Aguerd, signed just before the transfer deadline from West Ham United, scored his second goal in as many Ligue 1 appearances for his new club with five minutes gone at the Stade Velodrome. PSG goalkeeper Lucas Chevalier came for a deflected Mason Greenwood cross, but got nothing on the ball, allowing Aguerd to head into the unguarded net and score the
RSS