Tuesday night’s Major League Baseball All-Star Game in Seattle attracted a sea of fans rooting for a variety of players and teams. In a tech city, it felt appropriate to engage those fans on a sometimes divisive topic not related to pennant races: Are robots coming for the jobs of umpires?
Baseball traditionalists and champions of change offered up opinions about how technology could alter the sport for better or for worse. Most agreed that a human being needs to remain behind home plate even if that ump has to cede some control to a robot with a better eye for balls and strikes.
It’s already happening in the minor leagues, with the automatic ball-strike (ABS) system tracking pitches and opening up human calls to robotic interpretation. Check out how a player’s challenge of an ump worked in this video. Despite how the tech seems to work, a big-league promotion doesn’t appear likely in 2024.
GeekWire caught up with a number of fans during the All-Star Game to get their opinions on the topic. Keep reading for what they had to say.
Eddie Galvan, Cubs fan from Chicago
“I don’t think it can go fully robotic,” Eddie Galvan said, showing his knowledge about how the minor leagues are using a robotic challenge system on balls and strikes. “It’s pretty quick, you get an update right away. But I do like the feel of the old school umpire behind the catcher, calling balls and strikes. Even if the strike zone shifts a little bit, you get used to it during the game and that’s what you go with. I like that feel, more than the stoppage of challenging.
Galvan said he doesn’t see the umpires being eliminated completely.
“I like baseball the way it is.”
Courtney and John Owens, Mariners and White Sox fans from Seattle
“Human error is normal. Sure, robotics would make it more consistent, but part of the fun is that mistakes happen and people are human,” Courtney Owens said, adding that her husband, a White Sox fan originally from Chicago, is the bigger baseball fan. “I’m here for the beer and the cheering.”
John Owens said he’s open to trying anything when it comes to advancing baseball.
“I don’t like anyone that says the game can’t change,” he said. “I love quicker games, so the pitch clock is not a problem in my book. And if the next step is robot umps, I’d say give it a try.”
John Owens said he likes having a person behind the plate but he doesn’t see anything wrong with having someone — or something — check their accuracy.
“I’m there to see the players,” he said. “But I enjoy an umpire behind home plate giving the good strike three call, too. So I don’t want to give it up entirely if we don’t have to. But, games evolve, so we’ve got to evolve.”
Eric Aime, Mariners fan from South Hill, Wash.
Eric Aime said he’s always been “a very traditional baseball guy,” but tech advances in the past few years have him in favor of robotic umpires.
“I love the human element. But there have been game-deciding calls that I want to go the right way,” Aime said. “People get angry or upset, we’ve seen a lot of miscommunication between umpires and players or managers and things like that. To take the emotion out of that would be better for the game.”
Katarina Hunt, Phillies fan from Seattle
Katarina Hunt said she’d rather not see minor league robot umps make their way to the big leagues.
“I’m all for AI, don’t get me wrong,” Hunt said. “But the ability to see, after all their years being an ump, it’s something you cannot just generate. … I’d pick the real thing over AI any day.”
Despite calling herself a young fan, Hunt said she’s protective of the “integrity of the game.”
“At the end of the day, we allow those human mistakes,” she said. “I think it keeps the tradition of baseball alive. I think that’s the part that makes it interesting, arguing about the plays.”
Sean Lightfoot, Mariners fan from Mill Creek, Wash.
Sean Lightfoot admitted that there are problems with baseball umpires now, but the human element is a necessity.
“As much as there’s calls that we don’t like, we still need that human touch,” he said. “Refs, umps — it doesn’t matter what sport. I know we want to argue, but they’ve got the last call.”
So, no robots behind the plate?
“Maybe one day … way in the future,” Lightfoot said.
Dave Fox, Angels fan from Southern California
Dave Fox is a traditional baseball person, but he said “our traditions are going out the door” as he mentioned such changes as interleague play and the shift.
“They’ve changed so much,” he said, before adding that more ump tech is the right way to go. “Obviously they’re gonna have to have an umpire behind home plate to run the show, basically. But giving up balls and strikes is huge. If they implemented it I’d be OK with it.”
He said he’s gotten used to seeing the strike zone overlay on TV broadcasts and he gets mad at clear misses on balls and strikes calls by human umps.
“Let’s get it right,” Fox said. “We’re trying to get everything else right.”
Todd Pribanic, Guardians fan from Dallas
Robot, human, AI, whatever. Todd Pribanic said he wants whatever works and gets the right call.
“But it can’t mess with the time and the importance of the game in other areas. It has to make sense,” he said. “You don’t want to eliminate the human element altogether.”
Michael and Austin Ortega, Astros fans from Houston
Michael Ortega views bad calls by umps as a teaching opportunity for his 15-year-old son, Austin, and other young baseball players. He said he’s more worried about seeing players get better than umpires.
“We don’t want a bad call. Nobody does. You have to live with it,” Ortega said. “It changes gears in their head,” he added about young players who react to what’s called behind the plate.
Austin said he’d like to see a more accurate way of calling balls and strikes. But it might not make a difference.
“The umpires work in your favor and they don’t work in your favor,” he said.
Quincy Allen, Mariners fan from Tacoma, Wash.
Quincy Allen likes the strike zone box that shows up on TV broadcasts and he’d be all for calls being sent “upstairs” for a second look by more humans and robots.
“I feel that it’d be 100% accurate at that point, if someone’s actually reviewing it,” Allen said, stressing that the accuracy is more important to the game than human flaws. “If a robot is calling a play and it’s gonna say that it’s accurate, it’s accurate. How can I fault that?”
Allen said he’s already a fan of this season’s new pitch clock, and more tweaks to the game would be welcome.
“I like change!” he said. “As long as it’s good for the fans and everyone.”
