By: Brandon Baker

Baseball: America’s pastime. The sport conjures up images of summer days, sunflower seeds, and wait, gambling? The Supreme Court ruled that the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) violates the anticommandeering rule, and thus is unconstitutional.[1] This ruling allows states to decide whether they want to enact sports betting.[2] This new found freedom also puts the pressure on umpires to get calls right. The need for umpires to be flawless is more dire than ever, as many Americans will be using their hard-earned money to bet on these games. Even more so, Major League Baseball could receive harsh criticism than before if blatant calls are missed or called incorrectly. This harsh criticism could cause sports fans to take their money elsewhere.

This is a real issue that Major League Baseball needs to fix. Everyone has heard someone yelling at an umpire for making what the fan deems to be a “bad call”, but how often is the fan right and umpire wrong?  With regards to home plate umpires, at least 20% of the time. [3] One out of every five calls, called incorrectly and possibly changing the outcome of the game.[4] That is way too high of a percentage for errors when emotions and pride are at stake. When gambling gets involved, that number is completely unacceptable.

Clearly this issue has made its way onto Major League Baseball’s desk and they have begun to try to fix it. This past summer, Major League Baseball experimented with an electronic strike zone in an independent league. [5] The technology used is called TrackMan, which is a Doplar radar that analyzes each pitch and is able to accurately adjust the strike zone for each hitter. [6] Once the pitch has been thrown, TrackMan analyzes the data and relays the pitches location to the umpire. [7] This information is transmitted to the home plate umpire in real time by way of an ear piece. [8]

So far, the technology seems to be doing its job well and has been received positively where it has been implemented. [9] That is not to be said that the reaction to this robotic umpire technology has been all positive.  Some view baseball as great the way that it is and that there is no need to change such an integral part of the game. [10] While baseball may be good the way that it is, it is not perfect.

The goal of perfection and 0% errors on calls will be almost impossible, but lowering the amount of errors down from 20% would only be good for the game and it seems that robotic umpires can help.  With states now being allowed to look into sports betting, there is going to be a greater push for umpires to be more accurate. If Major League Baseball fails to tackle this issue head on and sides with the tradition aspect of the game, they may lose out on their slice of the sports betting pie.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[1] See Murphy v. Nat’l  Collegiate Athletic Ass’n, 138 S.Ct. 1461, 1478-79 (2018).

[2] See Tyler Lauletta, The Supreme Court has Overturned the Federal ban on Sports Betting — here’s what that means for the Immediate Future of Gambling in America, Bus. Insider (May 14, 2018), https://www.businessinsider.com/supreme-court-sports-betting-decision-what-it-means-2018-5.

[3] See Mark T. Williams, Are Baseball Umpires Wrong as Often as fans Think they are? Yes, one study says, Time (Apr. 8, 2019), https://news.yahoo.com/baseball-umpires-wrong-often-fans-112353048.html.

[4] Id.

[5] See Katherine Acquavella, Robot Umpires: How it works and its Effect on Players and Managers in the Atlantic League, plus what’s to come, CBS (Aug. 27, 2019), https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/robot-umpires-how-it-works-and-its-effect-on-players-and-managers-in-the-atlantic-league-plus-whats-to-come/.

[6] Id.

[7] Id.

[8] See Brian Heater, ‘Robot Umpires’ make Independent League Baseball debut, TechCrunch (July 11, 2019), https://techcrunch.com/2019/07/11/robot-umpires-make-independent-league-baseball-debut/.

[9] Supra note 5.

[10] See Frank Bodani, Baseball History made: Inside the debut of Robot Umpires, USA Today (July 11, 2019), https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/2019/07/11/mlb-trackman-system-makes-history-calls-balls-and-strikes-pro-game/1702431001/.

 

image source: https://kwhs.wharton.upenn.edu/2011/05/baseball%E2%80%99s-bottom-line-the-money-behind-the-game/