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A fine call Seeking consistency, league tests electronic pitch-tracker
Sports Illustrated's Stephen Cannella checks in with his baseball thoughts every Thursday throughout the season on CNNSI.com. As long as there have been umpires, men in blue have ruefully joked that theirs is the only profession in which one is expected to be perfect on Opening Day and then improve as the season progresses. After more than a century of bickering with players and managers, the umps are about to get some high-tech help, at least when it comes to the strike zone. As part of its crusade to make umpires' interpretations of balls and strikes more uniform, the commissioner's office has been testing an electronic pitch-tracking system that will allow umps to review their calls immediately after a game. A prototype that has been in use at Fenway Park for the last six weeks is expected to be approved for use next week. Major League Baseball has already wired Shea Stadium for the device and plans to have it up and running soon for further testing during Mets games. If the system is a success at Shea, the league will pick four other ballparks in which to have it installed. "It's very important that this is presented properly, that umpires understand how this will be used," says Ralph Nelson, Major League Baseball's vice president of umpiring. "This is a training tool that will build consistency. It's not an evaluation tool." The system, a souped-up version of those computer-generated ball-or-strike graphics you see in many television broadcasts, uses electronic signals beamed from various points in the stadium to track the flight of the ball as it approaches the plate. Within 30 minutes after games end umpires will be given CDs that they can pop into a laptop to review every pitch they just called. Not sure if that 95 mph Pedro Martinez fastball back in the fourth inning really was at the letters? Check the CD. Looking for reassurance that the changeup Greg Maddux threw in the eighth did, in fact, drift back over the inside corner, despite the protests of the hitter? Let's go to the CD. The CD will give umpires two views of each pitch: the standard center field camera video view and an electronic mapping of the pitch's movement as it crosses the plate. According to Nelson, the technology is accurate to within 2/5 of an inch. Umps will also be able to sort clips of pitches in a number of different ways -- for example, they could examine how they called pitches to left-handed hitters, or, say, how they called every curveball thrown in the game. The intention is to give umps an idea of which pitches they have trouble seeing and to find areas that need fine-tuning, not to grade them or produce accuracy ratings. Does an ump get tired and drop his head late in the game, and thus miss good views of pitches up in the zone? Do hitters that crowd the plate block an umpire's view of the inside corner? This system will tell him and allow him to work on such problem areas. "This isn't some big brother thing we're thrusting on them," says Nelson, who says the umps who have tested the system so far have been receptive to it. "We were testing it in Scottsdale in March, and one of our umps asked the technician, 'So how many pitches did I miss?' The scientist had to say he didn't know. The machine isn't programmed to do that." Nor is it programmed to call pitches during the game -- Nelson says the system is not a step down the road toward artificial umps like the Cyclops machine used to judge serves in tennis. "We're looking for consistency," he says. "Not to eliminate the umpire." Sports Illustrated staff writer Stephen Cannella covers the baseball beat for
the magazine. Touching Base appears every Thursday on CNNSI.com.
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