Cool article

No mention of D'Ump?

Yeah, seriously good article. No mention of the micro-chip in the ball thing they tried in the 70's, though, or did I dream that? Actually, I think I read about that attempt in the Umpire Strikes Back of all things. My memory is hazy but I remember a joke being made at Charlie Finley's expense because the prototype balls cost a couple hundred bucks a pop.

The obvious suggestion that nobody has suggested: hire Vulcans and round out their ears (nobody ever has to know). They are dispassionate, given to logic, and are highly trustworthy. Plus, if you try to start a heated argument with them, they can just give you that neck grip and you'll be lying in a heap at home plate. 'nuff said.

Use holograms to put in the video game strike zone box into real life. Bonus if we can have a circle pop up where it went over.

I mean, c'mon, if we can bring Tupac back from the dead, we can handle a few boxes and circles.

In the first place, one cannot imagine a catcher, batter, or pitcher flying into a rage and blessing out an electronic umpire.

No, but I look forward to Robot Earl Weaver doing just that.

I can't believe you beat me to the D'Ump reference. I thought littering threads with links to T&E videos was my own, particularly useless niche on BTF.

In the first place, one cannot imagine a catcher, batter, or pitcher flying into a rage and blessing out an electronic umpire

Sports history, such as it is, suggests the opposite.

Tennis umpires can still over-rule the machines.

When computer rankings were introduced to college football, the immediate assumption once they disagreed with the human rankings was that the computers were wrong and greater weight was given to the polls.

The partial counter to this is replay which people have great faith in ... but the final decision is still made by a human, uses the on-field call as default and is frequently controversial.

Humans don't like machines making decisions (although they are doing so all the time). And as soon as the Wrigley Field robo-ump rings up Dayan Viciedo, Hawk will erupt in furor and scream about how everybody knows the Cubs have rigged the robo-ump to have a bigger zone when they're pitching.

You know, the title of this article has me imagining a post apocalyptic world where everyone is hiding from killer robots. There's an old man telling his grandson about how it all started with robot umpires in baseball.

I can't believe you beat me to the D'Ump reference. I thought littering threads with links to T&E videos was my own, particularly useless niche on BTF.

The more the merrier! I'll be keeping my eye out.