Somewhere, Eric Gregg is Smiling...

[wade]

I am against robot umpires, but cannot list exactly why, which is frustrating.

[El Duderino]

if only we could make terminators. the umpires could look like anyone.

[rocket]

jesus you people are making me feel like bill plaschke.

 

is it really that weird to want to have humans officiating a sport played by other humans?

 

more wrong that weird. we can significantly improve umpiring with relative ease. why wouldn't we do it?

 

we can improve pitching by just using mechanical pitching machines that have pinpoint accuracy. might as well do that too.

[SouthSideRyan]

jesus you people are making me feel like bill plaschke.

 

is it really that weird to want to have humans officiating a sport played by other humans?

 

more wrong that weird. we can significantly improve umpiring with relative ease. why wouldn't we do it?

 

we can improve pitching by just using mechanical pitching machines that have pinpoint accuracy. might as well do that too.

 

And then pretty soon you have a man marrying a horse!

[rocket]

jesus you people are making me feel like bill plaschke.

 

is it really that weird to want to have humans officiating a sport played by other humans?

 

I think it's weird to find the poor job they do charming or accept it as something that has to be a part of the game.

 

Pretty much this. I'm not for "robot umpires" necessarily, but I AM 100% in favor of consistency and weeding out the worst of the worst, which does not happen.

 

major league umpires are a lot better at their jobs than all of us are at ours.

 

only difference is that when we screw up at our jobs, maybe 3 people care.

[wade]

Maybe I can use a poor example from another sport!

 

This one time, I was watching a Bears-Packers game. Just before the half, there was some sort of question about a punt or kickoff, or reception, can't remember exactly what. Anyway, red flags fly, commercials run. After the break, the broadcast station has the N.F.L.s head official in charge of replays in the booth- right there in the booth- and he is breaking down the 17th replay and telling us that yes, this will be overturned.

 

The guy in the replay booth, working as masterfully as Chris Nolan's film editor, freezes on the frame which contains the evidence, asserted by Head Replay Guy, that will cause this to be overturned.

 

After about a 10 minute break in action, the official comes out and says the play will stand, directly contradicting what the head guy saw while in the booth.

 

That is all-too common in the N.F.L. and I hate it. I don't know that MLB would have similar problems, but I hate the idea of it even if I'm assured they wouldn't.

 

I hate it.

 

No robots.

[SouthSideRyan]

Poor example indeed.

[biittner77]

I want the HCCF malfunctioning robot.

[CubmanPi]

bad umpiring is not a significant issue that's crippling the game. not even close. for the most part they do a fine job.

 

replacing the home plate umpire with a robot is just weird.

 

The lack of crippling of the game is hardly a defense of something that is still done poorly.

It's not done poorly. This sequence is clearly an outlier.

 

The sort of accuracy and consistency people are craving is already being achieved by the human umps. They're not infallible, but they're right 99.9% of the time. Things like video replays and timing equipment (in other sports) aren't infallable either. There's a failure rate with technology too.

 

Point taken about the failure rate of technology, but I still disagree overall. I know it's splitting hairs, but 99.9% is wrong. Assuming 150 pitches per team per game, that would mean that "irrefutable contrary evidence" would only overturn one balls-strikes call every three games, and I don't think anyone could argue that point with a straight face. I wouldn't know where/how to research it, but my guess is that it's probably closer to 8-15 missed ball-strike calls per game, or around 95-97% accuracy, with outlier games probably ranging around 92-93 percent or even lower. Your argument based on your made up numbers is perfectly reasonable, but the numbers I just made up are too high to not find it necessary to employ technology where it could be easily employed.

[OleMissCub]

I want the HCCF malfunctioning robot.

 

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f19/TheMojoPin/robot.jpg

[imb]

where the [expletive] is that guy? did he chocolate milk himself?

[Ding Dong Johnson]

where the [expletive] is that guy? did he chocolate milk himself?

If he was banned for being dumb, there's got to be a lot more joining him soon.

[jersey cubs fan]

major league umpires are a lot better at their jobs than all of us are at ours.

 

only difference is that when we screw up at our jobs, maybe 3 people care.

 

That is wrong, dumb and completely pointless.

[bukie]

we can improve pitching by just using mechanical pitching machines that have pinpoint accuracy. might as well do that too.

 

That's a weird jump in logic from "let's get the calls right" to "let's replace players with robots".

 

It's like saying that if the NHL is going to review goals, they may as well have a mechanical goalie.

[Derwood]

where the [expletive] is that guy? did he chocolate milk himself?

If he was banned for being dumb, there's got to be a lot more joining him soon.

 

Last login was February

 

Free da HCCF

[treebird]

bad umpiring is not a significant issue that's crippling the game. not even close. for the most part they do a fine job.

 

replacing the home plate umpire with a robot is just weird.

 

The lack of crippling of the game is hardly a defense of something that is still done poorly.

It's not done poorly. This sequence is clearly an outlier.

 

The sort of accuracy and consistency people are craving is already being achieved by the human umps. They're not infallible, but they're right 99.9% of the time. Things like video replays and timing equipment (in other sports) aren't infallable either. There's a failure rate with technology too.

 

you think that umpires are correct 999 times out of 1000?

[TruffleShuffle]

lol, the average game has what, probably 300 to 350 pitches? so that would mean that the home plate umpire would miss a ball/strike call or play at the plate once every 3 games. this seems rather unlikely.

[Sammy Sofa]

Something tells me that mention of "failure rate of technology" somehow involves a bird.

 

And no, this isn't me saying that machines never screw up.

[rocket]

major league umpires are a lot better at their jobs than all of us are at ours.

 

only difference is that when we screw up at our jobs, maybe 3 people care.

 

That is wrong, dumb and completely pointless.

 

you are

[Sammy Sofa]

*rocket and gooney make out*

[treebird]

jesus you people are making me feel like bill plaschke.

 

is it really that weird to want to have humans officiating a sport played by other humans?

 

more wrong that weird. we can significantly improve umpiring with relative ease. why wouldn't we do it?

 

we can improve pitching by just using mechanical pitching machines that have pinpoint accuracy. might as well do that too.

 

people pay money to watch men play baseball. no one pays money to watch umpires. the stupid umpires are just a necessary evil we have to have because the players on the field would lie about the outcome of plays if there were no umpires. their job is to get the game as close as possible to where the game would be if we had perfect knowledge of every play. this is just the next step in that. we had no umpires, then one, then two, now four and six for the games that count the most. we're just trying to get at close as possible to empirical truth as is reasonable.

[wade]

Poor example indeed.

 

Oh yeah, well, you're ugly.

[javy knows my name]

*rocket and gooney make out*

 

hahahaha

[javy knows my name]

I'm in the "let the humans do it" camp, but the arguments in favor have been so monstrously bad, I honestly don't know why.

[rocket]

I'm in the "let the humans do it" camp, but the arguments in favor have been so monstrously bad, I honestly don't know why.

 

BECAUSE NOT HAVING UMPIRES IS WEIRD, THAT'S THE ONLY ARGUMENT YOU NEED