Photo: SB Images
By: Kate Kennelly Independent baseball teams plan on bringing robotic umpires to their sport. Minor and major leagues may not be very far behind. In 2019, a small league in Atlanta began testing out robotic umpires. This robot stands behind home plate and makes calls on every pitch, much like a human umpire would. Robots can be very helpful. They can do many useful actions, such as perform risky surgeries or produce car parts. However, this robot has no practical use in baseball. This is because real umpires still have to stand behind the robot while the robotic umpires are being used. If a call is made by the robot that the human umpire does not agree with, the human overrules the robot. This means that the human umpire is still going to have to be present and working. Since the human umpire still has to do their normal job, there's no real need for the robot. The robot umpire is also very impractical because of their high cost. The robot can cost upwards of $50,000. While some argue that this could save the league and teams money from having to buy the services of umpires in the future, they still have to pay for human umpires to stand behind the robot umpire. This means that the robotic umpire would be an additional cost rather than a long term investment. Human interaction is a huge part of the sport. Baseball is a very old fashioned sport that does not need added technology. The sport has been played the same way for 150 years and has had huge successes. Why do we need to change what’s already working? It is tradition for umpires to yell calls out like “strike,” “ball,” or “and that's the game.” Adding a robot would be taking away that tradition. Players also talk to the umpire. Sometimes fights break out between them or they thank the umpires. The interaction between player and umpire is full of rich history and adds a relatable component to the game that the fans enjoy. Taking this away would be taking away a huge part of baseball. Taking away human umpires from baseball is a terrible idea. It would take away the rich history and tradition that we all love about baseball, while adding a cost that we don’t need.
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