i3 - July/August 2016 - 44

Business

By Steve Smith

R E TA I L ST R AT EG I E S

Electronic Umpires

the reliability of new technology should
do it with baseball."
Americans are passionate about baseball. Sports are our escape from the real
world and we don't want anyone to mess
around with it.
But if a major sport, like baseball, could
successfully use technology to take over
a high-profile part of its game - calling
balls and strikes for instance - it would
not only change the sport but would
make technologies like IoT seem like part
of everyday life instead of science fiction.
And this isn't a new idea. This spring
New York Times reporter Richard Sandomir told the long-forgotten story about
a device developed by a General Electric
engineering team in Syracuse in 1950,

General Electric's
electronic umpire

Hitters and pitchers have used video for
years to review their performances as well
as their rivals. Instant replay can change
calls that umpires make on the field,
teams using data to use defensive shifts
depending upon where certain batters hit
the ball, speed guns to show how fast a
pitcher is throwing and so much more.
By the end of last season even this longtime baseball traditionalist became convinced that it is time for
MLB to use electronics in
calling balls and strikes.

which was designed to call balls and strikes
instead of an umpire. The machine was
rolled out during spring
training by the Brooklyn
Dodgers' part-owner
I knew sensors
Branch Rickey.
could be put
Nothing came of that
Using Sensors
on home plate
technology but fast forI knew sensors could be
and on the uniward to the 2015 baseball
put on home plate and on
season. I had more free
forms of batters the uniforms of batters
time to watch baseball, in
which could call which could call balls
my new "semi-retirement"
strikes according
balls and strikes and
life. Without going into the
to MLB's rules. When
according to
rulebook, umpires seem
I was theorizing about
MLB's rules.
to feel the strike zone is a
an "electronic umpire"
matter of interpretation,
using sensors last season,
which it shouldn't be.
someone beat me to the
Baseball already embraces electronics.
punch last July. A minor league game had
its balls and strikes called by PITCHf/x, a
three-camera tracking system developed
by a company named Sportsvision. The
system has been used by MLB Advanced
Media in big league parks to collect data
on pitch location, speed and movement
since 2006, according to Lindsay Berra,
Yogi's granddaughter. She reported that
Eric Byrnes, a former major leaguer and
analyst for the MLB Network, announced
the system's call during the game for
the fans and is pushing for its use in the
Major Leagues.
Baseball, as in all sports and all
businesses worldwide, are awash in the
latest electronics. My guess is that if
Sportsvision's system is proven to be
successful it will not only make technologies such as IoT, driverless cars and
others less intimidating, it will help
popularize them with the public.
n

Steve Smith is editor at large of TWICE.
44

JULY/AUGUST 2016

I T I S I N N O VAT I O N

Sports Studio Photos/Getty Images

he late French-born historian, scholar and educator
who became an American citizen, Jacques Barzun, wrote
years ago, "Whoever wants to know the heart and mind
of America had better learn baseball." With consumer
technology taking over more tasks, the line could be changed to say,
"Whoever wants to convince Americans about

i3 - July/August 2016

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