By: Bill Doolittle
Photos By: Louisville Bats
The big news in major league baseball has been the adoption of a pitching clock, which forces batters to stay in the batters’ box instead of preening around outside it – and pitchers have 20 seconds to deliver the next pitch. The clock has lopped a full half hour, on average, off every major league game. And last year there was not a single game that lasted four hours.
Great news. But it’s Old News in minor league baseball, where the pitch clock was pioneered.
Today, the big changes coming are in umpiring, with the Louisville Bats and other AAA teams now testing an electronic system of calling balls and strikes. Two systems, actually.
Billy Rappaport, a producer of the Kentucky Derby and Olympic Games for NBC, is also a baseball fan with box seats on the first row at Louisville Slugger Field, right next to the Bats dugout. So he’s a close-up witness to the Brave New World of electronic umpiring.
“It’s only balls and strikes,” says Rappaport. “We’re not talking about plays safe or out at the plate or anything like that. Just balls and strikes.”
“Basically, you’ve got two scenarios,” Rappaport explains. “They’re taking every home stand and splitting it in half. So, the first half of the week — Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday — it’s all ABS — Automatic Balls and Strikes. They’ve got cameras set up all around the field that configure the strike box. The pitch comes in and the cameras see if it’s a ball or a strike — and automatically the umpire hears ‘ball’ or ‘strike’ in his earbud. An electronic voice. If he hears strike, he calls strike. If it’s a ball he may call ball, or might say nothing, the way some umpires like to do. But it’s all automatic. And there’s no ‘chirping’ from the dugouts. No arguments from the players. There’s nothing but ‘play ball,’ and the umpire is sort of taken out of the mix.”
“So, the umpire is just a functionary,” continues Rappaport. “He’s just communicating what he’s being told in his ear. And it’s all electronic.”
That’s on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. On Friday, Saturday and Sunday, they go to the other system.
In this system the umpire calls balls and strikes the old fashioned way. But each team has three challenges it may use during the game to get a second opinion on the umpire’s calls. With the second opinion made by the electronic camera. But that’s only when there’s a challenge.
“So let’s say you don’t like the call,” says Rappaport. “There’s only three people who can challenge: the batter, the catcher or the pitcher. They signal that challenge by putting a hand on their cap. If you get the challenge right, the challenge doesn’t count against you. You could do it thirty times if you keep getting it right. But if you get it wrong, you lose. And so, at the end, if you’re out of challenges there’s nothing you can do.”
Louisville Bats catcher Michael Trautwein likes that manager Pat Kelly mostly leaves it to him about calling a challenge.
“We have the best view of it back there (in the catcher’s box behind home plate),” the catcher says. “I’ve missed some, I’ve gotten some. I’m still learning the zone and getting a feel for it.”
The main thing, says Trautwein, is, “you try to use ‘em in big spots. Or early in the game to stop a team building a big lead. Mostly you try to save the challenges for late in the game: close games, runners in scoring position, two outs, strikeout pitches. That’s when I try to use the challenges. To utilize them.”
“You gotta look at the challenges like they do in football,” says Rappaport. “It’s a card you can turn over, or not turn over.”
Which system does he like best?
“Well, I like a good rhubarb as much as anybody, but the ABS keeps the game moving, without all the stuff – and I think that’s good,” says TV producer Rappaport. “Fans today accept the precision of the electronics, and they’re not there to see a game go five hours.
“But there’s a bit of an art to the challenges, and I like that, too,” he adds. “The best thing about the challenge is that it’s resolved quickly. Not like those endless replay videos that drag out forever. Ball or strike. Play ball!”
Louisville Bats hitter Hernan Perez touches his hat to challenge a called strike. Two pitches later ...