For the first time in history, Major League Baseball (MLB) is doing the opposite. In an extraordinary move, it will bring in robot umpires for the 2023 season! This program aims to improve the precision of ball and strike calls. It continues to involve human umpires by having them make the final calls on these plays. Teams would be given the chance to contest these calls, with a robotic system deciding how successful the challenge would be, if at all.
Although adding technology to officiating will not eliminate all mistakes, it would be a major improvement in getting calls right. As noted by Evan Wasch, NBA Executive Vice President overseeing basketball strategy and analytics, “Turns out, computers are really good at this.” This change is part of a larger movement through all of professional sports, where tech is being used to focus and improve the decision-making process.
On the baseball diamond, robot umpires will call more balls and strikes. Complicated judgment calls still will be up to human officials. In response, an automated matchmaking system is in the process of removing that burden from human referees. This change will free them up to focus on judgment-heavy, high-leverage plays that require sharp decision-making.
The influence of technology on the future of officiating is enormous, and is not limited to America’s pastime. The National Basketball Association (NBA) has long been leading the charge in bringing technology into its on-court product. The league has successfully employed sensors placed within basketballs to gather data, enhancing the understanding of player performance and game dynamics. At this past summer league, we had hundreds of players interacting with a ball embedded with a sensor. This ball was only a little bit heavier than a regular one, at around 600 grams. Surprisingly, the players could not even tell the extra gram made a difference.
Wasch explained the exciting prospects of using more technology to value add to officiating in any sport. He explained, “One, the precision on those calls, by definition, increases. This allows us to free up human referees from having to focus on the most routine calls. This frees up their attention on the much more challenging judgment calls, which they are most effective at making, thereby improving overall accuracy. We believe there’s a double bottom-line benefit to doing this from an accuracy perspective.”
This revolution in technology isn’t limited to baseball or basketball, as it’s made tremendous strides into the world of tennis. In recent years, the automatic line calling systems have taken over the work of line judges in many big tournaments, such as Wimbledon. With this shift to tech and automation, what will be the future roles of human officials in sports? Technology is changing what we know about infallible officiating.
Milwaukee Bucks coach Doc Rivers was in favor of using technology to make sure the right call is made. To illustrate, the potential of plugging computerized systems into the officiating process becomes more and more possible and advantageous. Sooner or later, players and coaches are going to start realizing the benefits that can be reaped from a direct and accurate data collection and comparative analysis.
Meanwhile, MLB is preparing to roll out robot umpires. This step raises a number of crucial questions and considerations, especially for the future of sports officiating. As technology becomes more prevalent in the world of sport, leagues have an opportunity to bolster their credibility by adopting technologies that lead to greater call accuracy. This move may be the result of increasing acceptance from referees and referees unions on the use of such technological solutions.
