AILSA CHANG, HOST:
So let me ask you - what is Major League Baseball without the human element of an umpire squatting behind home plate, calling balls and strikes? Like, can you picture no more manager storming out of the dugout to deliver a theatrical, dirt-kicking, chest-thumping tirade? It is hard to imagine, right? But those iconic confrontations may soon become relics of the past, especially if robot umpires deliver a flawless performance during tonight's MLB All-Star game in Atlanta. Yep, you heard that right. MLB first introduced these automated umps during spring training earlier this year and believes that they are ready for prime time.
Among the many baseball writers and fans more focused on the strike zone than the scoreboard tonight is Chelsea Janes. She's a national baseball writer for The Washington Post and joins us now. Hello, hello.
CHELSEA JANES: Hi. Thank you for having me.
CHANG: So OK, just give me some perspective here. Like, how pivotal is tonight's umpiring debut for the future of Major League Baseball (laughter)?
JANES: You know, I think it's pivotal in the sense that it's the first national showcase, but I think in terms of whether we get some automatic balls and strikes next year and beyond, it really doesn't matter because I think that's coming anyway.
CHANG: Yeah.
JANES: It's not going to be full balls and strikes. I think one of the things that the players have been very clear with Major League Baseball about is that they want umpires to yell at. They want the human element. So what they're going to do is start with a system where they can challenge a couple...
CHANG: (Laughter).
JANES: ...Calls a game and defer to the robot umpires. And that's what they're going to experiment with tonight.
CHANG: I mean, OK, when MLB introduced these robo umps during spring training, what happened? Like, how did that experiment go? Were there any major issues?
JANES: You know, they used the same system they're going to use tonight. So it wasn't every pitch that they were calling. They had umpires behind home plate, and then the players would say, OK, I think that was the wrong call. Let's check the board. They would go to this computer screen, much like they do in tennis, where they see if a ball is in and out. And then either the player or the umpire is correct, and they move on with the game. One of the things that is unique about the strike zone is that it varies based on your height. It's, you know, knees...
CHANG: Yeah.
JANES: ...To shoulders. And so if you start to automate that, do you adjust it for every player? What if someone squats really low to make it difficult, you know? But other than that, there were no major issues. It was just sort of a fascination for everyone.
CHANG: OK. Well, you put your finger on it. Like, calling balls in and out of the strike zone, it just seems more of an art than a science, right? There's so many variables involved. Like, what do you think we lose if this human element disappears and we go with robo umpires? Like you said, people love to yell at the umpire. What happens when you yell at a robot?
JANES: I mean, it's, you know, hilarious, but it's something players have brought up. It's like, I want to yell at that person.
CHANG: (Laughter).
JANES: And more specifically, you know, I think it's, like, kind of an art in itself to say, hey, I think you missed that, buddy, or, you know, kind of interact with the umpire and work him...
CHANG: Yeah.
JANES: ...You know, as people do. And I think the other part of it is, when a pitcher's having a really good day or when a future Hall of Famer is pitching versus a guy making his first start, there's just different benefit of the doubt given. An umpire might call more strikes for the guy who's, you know, shown that he can throw strikes, whereas a guy who's all over the place isn't going to get borderline pitches. And those are just adjustments that come from the human element that people expect.
But they did experiment in the Atlantic League, which is a professional league that is outside of the major leagues, and, you know, the pitchers would turn around and kind of look up at the booth where the computer is, and they didn't have anywhere to go with it.
CHANG: (Laughter).
JANES: You know, I had one guy say, I couldn't yell at it. I didn't know what to do. So it's kind of funny.
CHANG: (Laughter) It's so unsatisfying, yeah.
JANES: Yeah. Yeah, it's funny. I - you know, I think we're a while away from that, but there are people who want it to look like that, and - but I don't think they're in the majority right now.
CHANG: So what's the purported justification for these robo umps? Is it precision and fairness or is it cost? Because I was looking at Front Office Sports, and currently 76 full-time umpires in the MLB earn anywhere between, like, 150,000 to 450,000 a year. So is this kind of driven by economics mostly, or what's going on here?
JANES: You know, I think Major League Baseball would never admit that there's the economics behind it, but when you think about those salaries, the cost of travel, security for these umpires, I mean, it certainly adds up. I think also there's a sense in baseball that if you can get things absolutely right, you should. They've done that with instant replay and increased the scope of that over the years. So I think it's just one of those things where if the technology is available to avoid a situation where a huge game gets determined by a missed call, I think they want to use it. And I think the players are on board for that. But almost nothing Major League Baseball does comes without an economic motive, and I don't think that should be discounted.
CHANG: Yeah. Chelsea Janes, national baseball writer for The Washington Post. Thank you so much.
JANES: Thanks for having me. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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