The Conversation - MLB's robo-umping experiment

If you’ve had a chance to catch a spring training game, you may have noticed Major League Baseball’s deployment of its automated ball-strike challenge system. Powered by Hawk-Eye ball-tracking technology, it allows players to dispute an umpire’s call in real time and could appear in regular season games as soon as 2026.

Arizona State University’s Arthur Daemmrich and the Smithsonian Institution’s Eric S. Hintz explore the evolution of this technology, which is already used in professional tennis, cricket and soccer.

It turns out that Hawk-Eye, while impressive, isn’t perfect. To Daemmrich and Hintz, fans will have the final say over whether robot umps will one day replace the human ones.

“Fan enthusiasm is a key component of whether to adopt new technology,” they write. It’s easy to see baseball fans missing the drama of players and managers bickering over balls and strikes – and even getting the boot for their recalcitrance.

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