Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Robot umpires coming to Major League Baseball. We had that
conversation briefly with Congressman. I know he's a baseball fan
and a sports fan in general, so that's why I
was curious as to, you know, his thoughts.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
I mean, the official name is the Automated what is it?
Speaker 3 (00:19):
The the.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
For the system? I know the initials are ABS, and
I'm just thinking, you know, I've never had luck with
ABS lights before, so I'm just wondering, you know, are
they going to have like an official ABS light over
the game on TV? Put a graphic up there for
the ABS light when they're saying, okay, the system has
called that a strike, and I just it's not going
(00:45):
to be.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
It's it's not going to be just sitting there and
you know you'll be able to see it on every pitch.
That's not how this is going to be utilized, at
least I don't think. Oh and Alex Stone is joining
us from ABC News via phone today. He's having trouble connecting.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
I guess, is that right?
Speaker 4 (01:09):
Yeah, Yeah, the line we normally use for whatever reason,
it's coming up busy. But that's okay. We'll go with
a backup method of the good old fashioned son.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Yeah, so Chuck and I were just kind of having
this discussion about the robot umpires. It's you know, known
as ABS. I don't even know what that stands for,
but it's interesting. Alex Congressman Jim Jordan was just on
with us early at the top of the hour, and
we were having this conversation with him. He's a sports fan,
baseball fan and so on. We were kind of having
(01:37):
this conversation with him, but he's not really he hadn't
he wasn't really privy to a lot of the excuse
me particulars with this, but I was saying, it's like
the teams can only use I think two of these,
it can challenge two of them per game or something
along as I think I was seeing something like that.
But this is really interesting. I wondered when this was
(01:58):
going to get into the game. But this is an
interesting thing. So what is the latest on this?
Speaker 4 (02:04):
Yes, I mean, I don't know about you, but but
I feel like arguing growing up watching you know, Tony
LaRussa come running out and argue when he was running
the A's like that was part of the game. And yeah,
kicking dirt and you hoped for that as a kid
that there is going to be an argument in the game,
and this at least they're hoping that this gets rid
of a lot of that. This is about making sure
(02:24):
that it's a computer making the call and the argument
wouldn't be there. But yeah, the ABS system for Automatic
ball Strike System will be rolled out next year in
Major League Baseball. They tried it in spring training. It
seemed to work well. They've been doing it in minor
league baseball and now they're going to do it next
year for the regular season and the postseason, and they
(02:46):
say it moves quick and it cleans things up. It'll
be used if a player wants to appeal the human
umpires call, and every team will get two appeals per game,
and their appeal if it's upheld, then they don't lose
that appeal. So if you have two of them and
then you win one of the appeals, you still have two.
But if you lose the appeal, then you lose one
of those and you have one and then none. But
(03:07):
all they've got to do it's got to be a catcher,
a pitcher, a batter who will buy with a sign
that they're going to do with the way they move
tipping their cap or their helmet that will trigger the review.
And we talked to Tom Berducci, senior writer at Sports Illustrated.
His take on this whole thing is, yeah, this change
is a dynamic of the umpire's roll in the game.
(03:28):
This is historic because when you think about it, the
first umpire the major leagues, they've been sort of like
supreme court justices. There has been no higher court. But now,
for the first time, there's sort of an appellate court
where if the batter, the pitcher, or the catcher thinks
the Empire made a mistake, they can say, hang on
a second, we are going to appeal and check what
(03:49):
technology says, So they're going to use twelve what are
called hawkeye cameras around the field and then the play
will be reviewed and then a graphic will be displayed
of the roboumps call up on the the big screen
and then on the TV broadcast. And MLB says this
is gonna be quick. The average review will be less
than fifteen seconds, and when they've been doing it, it's
(04:09):
always been less than that.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
They tested this system in spring training this season and
the average replay challenge took thirteen point eight seconds and
there's only four challenges in the course of the game.
Speaker 4 (04:21):
So they say it will be quick. But hawkeye technologies
already been used in other sports. Who was introduced in
tennis in two thousand and six for line calls. The
NFL began using it this year for first down calls.
But there is this aspect of taking the human element
away from it, and that is part of what baseball
is all about. And Virducci says, look that major League
Baseball gets it.
Speaker 3 (04:41):
Nobody wants to see a game completely ruled by technology.
We still want the human element. But this is really
just dipping a toe into that water instead of just
diving into the deep end of the pool.
Speaker 4 (04:52):
And Major League Baseball is saying they're not taking it away,
but it will cut down in arguments on the field.
And again, I don't know if that's good or bad,
because it does bring action to the sport with audiences
watching to get a little bit of the disagreement and
argument out there. And now they just go to the
ROBOUMP and it says definitively where that ball was. Yeah,
there is a belief that that yat's going to speed
(05:12):
things up, and yeah, gets rid of the arguments and
gets things moving. But there are others who look at
it and say, look, sports are turning to this because
there is pressure on them now with so much sports
betting and the app betting and everything else, so much
money on the line, that every call has got to
be right or it costs somebody a lot of money.
That in today's world where there are a lot of
(05:32):
bets that are going on and the you know every
moment in the apps, that all of these leagues are
now pressured to make sure that there is no human
error in them and no wiggle room in this stuff.
So Major League Baseball will be turning at least, you know,
four times a game if it's activated, if teams use
it to the roboumps to decide if the umpire's got
(05:53):
the right call of balls or strikes.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
I think we're first and foremost, we are humans before
we're anything. I think everybody agrees with that. The thing
that's interesting for me, Alex with this is when you
are a major League baseball player and then you're a
major league umpire as well, both of them have most
likely met before and or been working together before many
(06:16):
times before, especially given the nature of just how many
games are played yearly and so on and so forth,
rotations and all of that, I think, and I bring
up the human element because there are people who legitimately
don't like certain umpires, and then there are umpires who
legitimately don't like certain players for whatever reason. And I
feel like sometimes they're given the benefit of the doubt
(06:39):
or not given the benefit of the doubt, and you
can never really prove it, especially if they don't have
an exact pattern of Whenever, you know, Joey Vado comes
up to the plate, this umpire they had a beef back,
you know, two years ago, and so this umpire is
not favorable to him or whatever. It's going to take
any of that. If there was any discrepancy whatsoever with that,
(07:00):
I feel like it also could square that up. And
the umpire might in a situation knowing that he was
kind of doing some of that before. And I'm not
talking about every pitch of every at bat, but let's say,
you know, in a really critical situation, he tom was
right about what he said with regard to it's like
they're like a they're like a justice in the Supreme Court,
(07:21):
and they say that and it's got to go. But
I think this is an interesting thing. I like it,
and uh, I'll be interested to see how many teams
utilize this and then it actually ends up working in
their faith.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
I'm just happy to hear. This is essentially like a
football coach throw in the red flag. It's not going
to be an automatic thing where the you I don't
want a computer second guess in the up. If you
want to throw a challenge, throw the challenge. But we
do not need anything to elongate the game anymore. Agreed.
Speaker 4 (07:49):
No, And they seem to be wanting to speed it up,
you know, more than anything, because I mean you look
at what like the popularity of the Savannah bananas right now,
you know this kind of theatrical league and how much
people are saying, hey, major League Baseball needs to do
more of that, and they just move on and there.
You know, So this is about getting it going quickly.
I keep likening it too in a totally different way.
(08:10):
Body warn cameras for law enforcement, where when they first
came in there was a little bit of trepidation and whatnot,
but you had a group of cops and in this
case umpires saying great, this is going to make us better,
that it's going to double check what we're doing, that
it's going to show that we're not getting things wrong
and we're doing it right. Yet, of course you have
some on the other side who are saying, well, wait
(08:31):
a second, there's a lot of discretion in what we do,
and you know that we don't need this and we
don't need somebody double checking our work. So you got
a little bit of that going on in both ways.
But primarily I'm sir saying, they want to get it right,
that their job is to get it right, and that
they feel like that this will back them up so
they can say, look, I made the right call. But
(08:53):
they're humans, so every now and then they are going
to make the wrong call, and this will theoretically at
least correct that when somebody on the field says, wait
a second, you didn't see that right, and then they
can go to the computer and.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
Find out, Yeah, that'll be it'd be really cool too,
once we see this in motion, it'll be really cool,
which is what next year again, it'll be next season yep,
twenty twenty six.
Speaker 4 (09:15):
It'll be the spring training and then the regular season
and the postseason.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
Very cool. Alex Stone ABC News out of Los Angeles, Alex,
thank you very much and we'll talk to you later.
Speaker 4 (09:25):
Later, see you man,
Robot umpires coming to Major League Baseball. We had that
conversation briefly with Congressman. I know he's a baseball fan
and a sports fan in general, so that's why I
was curious as to, you know, his thoughts.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
I mean, the official name is the Automated what is it?
Speaker 3 (00:19):
The the.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
For the system? I know the initials are ABS, and
I'm just thinking, you know, I've never had luck with
ABS lights before, so I'm just wondering, you know, are
they going to have like an official ABS light over
the game on TV? Put a graphic up there for
the ABS light when they're saying, okay, the system has
called that a strike, and I just it's not going
(00:45):
to be.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
It's it's not going to be just sitting there and
you know you'll be able to see it on every pitch.
That's not how this is going to be utilized, at
least I don't think. Oh and Alex Stone is joining
us from ABC News via phone today. He's having trouble connecting.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
I guess, is that right?
Speaker 4 (01:09):
Yeah, Yeah, the line we normally use for whatever reason,
it's coming up busy. But that's okay. We'll go with
a backup method of the good old fashioned son.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Yeah, so Chuck and I were just kind of having
this discussion about the robot umpires. It's you know, known
as ABS. I don't even know what that stands for,
but it's interesting. Alex Congressman Jim Jordan was just on
with us early at the top of the hour, and
we were having this conversation with him. He's a sports fan,
baseball fan and so on. We were kind of having
(01:37):
this conversation with him, but he's not really he hadn't
he wasn't really privy to a lot of the excuse
me particulars with this, but I was saying, it's like
the teams can only use I think two of these,
it can challenge two of them per game or something
along as I think I was seeing something like that.
But this is really interesting. I wondered when this was
(01:58):
going to get into the game. But this is an
interesting thing. So what is the latest on this?
Speaker 4 (02:04):
Yes, I mean, I don't know about you, but but
I feel like arguing growing up watching you know, Tony
LaRussa come running out and argue when he was running
the A's like that was part of the game. And yeah,
kicking dirt and you hoped for that as a kid
that there is going to be an argument in the game,
and this at least they're hoping that this gets rid
of a lot of that. This is about making sure
(02:24):
that it's a computer making the call and the argument
wouldn't be there. But yeah, the ABS system for Automatic
ball Strike System will be rolled out next year in
Major League Baseball. They tried it in spring training. It
seemed to work well. They've been doing it in minor
league baseball and now they're going to do it next
year for the regular season and the postseason, and they
(02:46):
say it moves quick and it cleans things up. It'll
be used if a player wants to appeal the human
umpires call, and every team will get two appeals per game,
and their appeal if it's upheld, then they don't lose
that appeal. So if you have two of them and
then you win one of the appeals, you still have two.
But if you lose the appeal, then you lose one
of those and you have one and then none. But
(03:07):
all they've got to do it's got to be a catcher,
a pitcher, a batter who will buy with a sign
that they're going to do with the way they move
tipping their cap or their helmet that will trigger the review.
And we talked to Tom Berducci, senior writer at Sports Illustrated.
His take on this whole thing is, yeah, this change
is a dynamic of the umpire's roll in the game.
(03:28):
This is historic because when you think about it, the
first umpire the major leagues, they've been sort of like
supreme court justices. There has been no higher court. But now,
for the first time, there's sort of an appellate court
where if the batter, the pitcher, or the catcher thinks
the Empire made a mistake, they can say, hang on
a second, we are going to appeal and check what
(03:49):
technology says, So they're going to use twelve what are
called hawkeye cameras around the field and then the play
will be reviewed and then a graphic will be displayed
of the roboumps call up on the the big screen
and then on the TV broadcast. And MLB says this
is gonna be quick. The average review will be less
than fifteen seconds, and when they've been doing it, it's
(04:09):
always been less than that.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
They tested this system in spring training this season and
the average replay challenge took thirteen point eight seconds and
there's only four challenges in the course of the game.
Speaker 4 (04:21):
So they say it will be quick. But hawkeye technologies
already been used in other sports. Who was introduced in
tennis in two thousand and six for line calls. The
NFL began using it this year for first down calls.
But there is this aspect of taking the human element
away from it, and that is part of what baseball
is all about. And Virducci says, look that major League
Baseball gets it.
Speaker 3 (04:41):
Nobody wants to see a game completely ruled by technology.
We still want the human element. But this is really
just dipping a toe into that water instead of just
diving into the deep end of the pool.
Speaker 4 (04:52):
And Major League Baseball is saying they're not taking it away,
but it will cut down in arguments on the field.
And again, I don't know if that's good or bad,
because it does bring action to the sport with audiences
watching to get a little bit of the disagreement and
argument out there. And now they just go to the
ROBOUMP and it says definitively where that ball was. Yeah,
there is a belief that that yat's going to speed
(05:12):
things up, and yeah, gets rid of the arguments and
gets things moving. But there are others who look at
it and say, look, sports are turning to this because
there is pressure on them now with so much sports
betting and the app betting and everything else, so much
money on the line, that every call has got to
be right or it costs somebody a lot of money.
That in today's world where there are a lot of
(05:32):
bets that are going on and the you know every
moment in the apps, that all of these leagues are
now pressured to make sure that there is no human
error in them and no wiggle room in this stuff.
So Major League Baseball will be turning at least, you know,
four times a game if it's activated, if teams use
it to the roboumps to decide if the umpire's got
(05:53):
the right call of balls or strikes.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
I think we're first and foremost, we are humans before
we're anything. I think everybody agrees with that. The thing
that's interesting for me, Alex with this is when you
are a major League baseball player and then you're a
major league umpire as well, both of them have most
likely met before and or been working together before many
(06:16):
times before, especially given the nature of just how many
games are played yearly and so on and so forth,
rotations and all of that, I think, and I bring
up the human element because there are people who legitimately
don't like certain umpires, and then there are umpires who
legitimately don't like certain players for whatever reason. And I
feel like sometimes they're given the benefit of the doubt
(06:39):
or not given the benefit of the doubt, and you
can never really prove it, especially if they don't have
an exact pattern of Whenever, you know, Joey Vado comes
up to the plate, this umpire they had a beef back,
you know, two years ago, and so this umpire is
not favorable to him or whatever. It's going to take
any of that. If there was any discrepancy whatsoever with that,
(07:00):
I feel like it also could square that up. And
the umpire might in a situation knowing that he was
kind of doing some of that before. And I'm not
talking about every pitch of every at bat, but let's say,
you know, in a really critical situation, he tom was
right about what he said with regard to it's like
they're like a they're like a justice in the Supreme Court,
(07:21):
and they say that and it's got to go. But
I think this is an interesting thing. I like it,
and uh, I'll be interested to see how many teams
utilize this and then it actually ends up working in
their faith.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
I'm just happy to hear. This is essentially like a
football coach throw in the red flag. It's not going
to be an automatic thing where the you I don't
want a computer second guess in the up. If you
want to throw a challenge, throw the challenge. But we
do not need anything to elongate the game anymore. Agreed.
Speaker 4 (07:49):
No, And they seem to be wanting to speed it up,
you know, more than anything, because I mean you look
at what like the popularity of the Savannah bananas right now,
you know this kind of theatrical league and how much
people are saying, hey, major League Baseball needs to do
more of that, and they just move on and there.
You know, So this is about getting it going quickly.
I keep likening it too in a totally different way.
(08:10):
Body warn cameras for law enforcement, where when they first
came in there was a little bit of trepidation and whatnot,
but you had a group of cops and in this
case umpires saying great, this is going to make us better,
that it's going to double check what we're doing, that
it's going to show that we're not getting things wrong
and we're doing it right. Yet, of course you have
some on the other side who are saying, well, wait
(08:31):
a second, there's a lot of discretion in what we do,
and you know that we don't need this and we
don't need somebody double checking our work. So you got
a little bit of that going on in both ways.
But primarily I'm sir saying, they want to get it right,
that their job is to get it right, and that
they feel like that this will back them up so
they can say, look, I made the right call. But
(08:53):
they're humans, so every now and then they are going
to make the wrong call, and this will theoretically at
least correct that when somebody on the field says, wait
a second, you didn't see that right, and then they
can go to the computer and.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
Find out, Yeah, that'll be it'd be really cool too,
once we see this in motion, it'll be really cool,
which is what next year again, it'll be next season yep,
twenty twenty six.
Speaker 4 (09:15):
It'll be the spring training and then the regular season
and the postseason.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
Very cool. Alex Stone ABC News out of Los Angeles, Alex,
thank you very much and we'll talk to you later.
Speaker 4 (09:25):
Later, see you man,
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