Umpires resent Questec system

ST. LOUIS (AP) -- America's Pasttime is becoming the scene of a classic confrontation between man and machine.

Major League Baseball has installed computerized monitoring devices at 10 parks that use aerospace technology to verify balls and strikes and evaluate umpires' performance

The umpires tell The Sporting News they're being second-guessed by a technology that is unreliable and unfair.

Others say the umpires are running scared and sometimes seem unsure of what to do.

Umpire John Hirschbeck, for example, was behind the plate for the New York Yankees' 10-9 victory over Toronto in a game that lasted more than four hours and saw 382 pitches. He thought he did a good job and not one player complained about the way he was calling balls and strikes.

But the next day, Hirschbeck received a CD from Major League Baseball that said the QuesTec Umpire Information System found him to be wrong on 37 ball-strike calls. Hirschbeck was aghast, even though his number of correct rulings exceeded 90 percent, the standard mandated by Major League Baseball.

"I don't miss 37 pitches in a month," said Hirschbeck, the president of the World Umpires Association. "You're going to have faith in a system like that?"

The UIS is in use at both New York parks, Anaheim, Arizona, Boston, Cleveland, Houston, Milwaukee, Oakland and Tampa Bay.

Sandy Alderson, Major League Baseball's executive vice president for baseball operations, admits the system is not flawless. But he says that the UIS has forced umpires to call a strike zone closer to the rulebook definition than they have in "many, many years," especially outside pitches that no longer are called strikes.

Many feel the dispute is rais1ing new questions about the shape of the strike zone, which UIS interprets differently from the rulebook.

Arizona Diamondbacks ace Curt Schilling smashed a QuesTec camera in late May, frustrated by what he perceived to be a shrinking zone. Braves closer John Smoltz says, "There's no way anyone can convince me that a computer can tell what a strike is."

The Sporting News said others detect a crisis of confidence among umpires, who also are under orders to speed up games.

Pirates catcher Jason Kendall said "These guys are being watched, and they know it, so we know it. They are trying to call the game for a computer and worrying about what the computer is going to say instead of watching the pitch and calling what it should be. They are calling the game scared."

Alderson says it's not true. The UIS is meant to be a training tool, giving umpires objective feedback. Major League Baseball, he adds, does not intend to fire umpires because of low UIS scores, or to eventually replace them with computerized robots. Alderson, who assumed responsibility for the umpires in 2000, points out that he has not dismissed any umps for performance-based reasons.

Umpires tell The Sporting News they are not opposed to technological innovation, but want it to be fair and sensible. They point out that baseball tried to evaluate them by pitch counts in 2001 and abandoned that plan only after the umpires' union filed a grievance.

With the UIS system, cameras in the stands off the first base and third base lines track each pitch, determining speed, break, and location. Cameras at the field level snap a photograph of the batter when the ball is approximately halfway to home plate, enabling a QuesTec operator to establish the vertical strike zone for each pitch. The system is calibrated to account for different camera locations in each park.

Major League Baseball has budgeted for installation of the system in three more stadiums. Alderson said the system was not installed in all 30 parks immediately because of its experimental nature. It then became a financial risk to expand the system, because of a grievance by the umpires union. Major League Baseball is paying QuesTec $520,000 for the system -- $30,000 to install it in each park and $200 for each game.

Umpire union lawyer Larry Gibson said the UIS misses not only pitches, but entire at-bats.

"Those pitches aren't given to the umpire. They're written out of history," Gibson said. "It's as if the pitch had never been thrown."

Many umpires believe Major League Baseball executives do not understand the practical realities of calling balls and strikes. Umpires learn their understanding of the strike zone in the minor leagues, reaching a comfort level by using their own instincts and adjusting to players' reactions.

"You're encouraged to call strikes," said Larry Barnett, a former umpire and supervisor. "It's flow of the game. Old-time umpires used to tell me, 'Think strikes.' "

Alderson said umpires need to adjust to today's technology.

"The bottom line is, there are ways that can be used to determine whether pitches are being called balls and strikes in a reasonable fashion," Alderson said. "We've got to get over the notion that there aren't any and therefore [we should] leave umpires to their own devices. that's not the world we live in."

There is little chance the two sides will resolve the grievance before arbitration, according to The Sporting News.

"It's not just minor tweaking that is required," Gibson said. "This is not a decent system."

 

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