Technology Strikes Out in Major League Baseball

Baseball is one of those sports where the rules are timeless and simplistic. However, over recent years Major League Baseball initiated a growing interest in digitizing the game through an electronic strike zone and communication devices. This comes after recent World Series wins with teams using electronics to cheat and seemingly getting away with it with little to no punishment. So yeah, let’s put more technology into baseball, and the frequency of cheating will totally decrease!

With all the new technology Major League Baseball is pushing, it makes us lose sight of what the game used to be like. While most of this technology is in its early testing phase, it one day could become a reality when we turn on our TVs for the next game.

Electronic Strike Zone

What started as an excellent idea for the advancement of baseball turned out to be a colossal failure. Back at the beginning of the year, Major League Baseball announced that they would be testing automated strike zones in minor leagues and fall ball in 2021. However, as time went on, it became apparent that the electronic zone misread or misinterpreted pitches that may be considered strikes by a human umpire. Overall, it made it much more difficult for pitchers as their zone shrunk by a lot.

Hilariously, one of the games, in particular, lasted over three hours because of the lack of pitchers available after only seven innings. Mainly since the pitchers they did use walked 22 people. Yep. 22 people. So maybe while some of us complain over bad calls by poor interpretations of the strike zone, at least we don’t have to see 22 walks.

It’s unclear if Major League Baseball will introduce the electronic strike zone again in the minors. Still, we may be seeing the last of this iteration for a while with such a significant setback.

Another version of the electronic strike zone came into play in 2019, with the program TrackMan being introduced in the Independent Atlantic League All-Star Game. The umpire would wear AirPods behind home plate and be given signals after every pitch. It allowed for a computer to track most of the pitches; however, when checked swings and bouncing balls came into play, the human umpire would interfere.

Since this happened back in 2019 and TrackMan has yet to make another appearance in a professional game, it seems to have lost traction. I think that this piece of technology actually could have been the perfect bridge between the human and innovative aspects of baseball. Alas, I guess we will go on without it.

One-Way Electronic Communication

The idea behind this new piece of technology is for the team to relay signals without the threat of sign stealing — something all too familiar to some fans in the league. While many methods of sign stealing are illegal… like bashing a trash can…other forms of sign stealing are entirely okay if the catcher makes it blatantly obvious to the second baseman. 

One-way communication devices have grown throughout the minor leagues, with the Low-A West Division testing it out in July 2021. It was also announced that the use of this device would be seen in next year’s NCAA D-1 Baseball Tournament, something many teams have experimented with. This means we will see earpieces or display boards giving plays versus the good old-fashioned way of talking.

In terms of new technology, this one seems the most mundane. On the heels of something like the 2019 World Series, introducing this to fans would generally receive a much more favorable opinion than in years prior. There is a lot to work out here in which type of parameters the device would be allowed to function in. Overall, I am okay with this technology.

Now I need to set the record straight — I don’t hate technology. I also don’t think introducing technology into baseball will ruin it. I believe particular tech can provide a more enjoyable experience for the fans and the players. 

Take, for example, the emergence of statcast in baseball. It provided fans with the opportunity to track distances, speeds, and more in a few seconds. Rather than alter the game, it provided information to players on hitting and velocity and fans a way to track how far their favorite player might have hit a home run. So instead of worrying about ways to modify the rules of the game, why don’t we focus on what will improve fan watchability, not at the player’s expense?

I don’t know about you, but I have watched countless games where an umpire has made the wrong call numerous times. Did it piss me off? Yeah, but that is part of the beauty of the game. It’s human and natural, which for me, is what makes baseball so appealing. It isn’t filled with complicated technology or relying on computers to ensure the game works. It has persisted for a century based on playing in a backyard with just a stick and a ball.

Cover image credit goes to Julio Cortes/AP Photo.