Posted on 07/19/2016 12:12:47 PM PDT by Colofornian
Don’t look at me for an answer; I doubt that there is one that holds water. I venture to suppose that an iPad Pro has the number crunching capability to call balls - you need an up to call strikes - but as the use of the first/third base umpires illustrates, calling strikes is not best done from behind the plate. Put the home plate ump directly facing the batter - and far enough away that the risk of his being hit by a foul is de minimus. Or else use a TV camera looking down onto home plate to give the correct view of the bat.IMHO by tracking the pitch via video looking at home plate from the left and the right field “fair” poles and digital processing, a computer could track the path of a pitch far more consistently that a human can do it. Probably down to a millimeter or so.
If you really wanted to get serious about accuracy, you would instrument the fielders’ gloves and the bases so that the time when a fielder caught a ball, and the time a baserunner reached/left a base would be known to the millisecond. Tag plays would be difficult to instrument, but at least you could put a video cam in the bill of each player’s cap, and know what he saw.
Clearly replay officiating is still in its infancy; replays of multiple video feeds should be reviewable split screen so that it would be clearer what actually happened first. Instant replay should be, in the not-so-far-distant future surely will be, much faster than it is.
four game suspension for a ball???
...
Goodell is a dictator. Who knows his real reason for going after Brady.
Brady proved without a doubt that he plays great with legally inflated footballs. His only motivation would have been to make sure the balls weren’t overinflated.
Regardless, the NFL’s investigation was a joke. By contract they can railroad a player and that’s what they did.
... even if Brady continues to toss future cell phones away ...
If your employer were trying to railroad you would you give them your personal phone?
And the other guy!! He’s key to my team and I WANT him out for the season!!
What would happen to you or me doing 150 with kid and drugs in car and resisting arrest.
Problem is “field goal range” is now half the field. In the ancient days (1930s) the extra point conversion percentage was 67%, now the 50+ yard success rate is around 62%, kickers have gotten too good, FG success rate keeps climbing, FG kicks are getting automatic. 4th down attempts are innately more exciting than FG kicks. Any play that’s actually contested is more exciting than FG kicks. More misses and more going for it is better for the game, because it creates drama. It’s amazing how little drama we now really have on those late drives with a team down 1, it used to be the last second FG was a dramatic play, maybe they’ll make it, maybe they won’t. In the modern game you know if the team down by 1 gets within the 30 they’ll almost certainly make the kick unless the weather sucks, and of course with all these domes the weather rarely sucks anymore.
Another benefit of if they move the posts but not the hashes is that it actually make short FGs harder at a higher rate, because the kicker has the steer more (because if they ball’s on the hash it will actually be outside the posts) in a shorter distance. FG kickers are showing they have a lot more skill, make them use it.
If you watch MLB now days, they have the computer generated strike zone. The umpires are probably correct 95% of the time, but why not 100%. Why not have a virtual strike zone that is set for each batter based on height. Seriously. You really don’t need the umpires in baseball. Screw George Will. YOu want umpires they can call a game in Little league through AAA ball. MLB should be perfect regarding the outcomes.
Alright. You’ve convinced me.
The sensor would have to survive the G-forced when the ball is caught it struck with a bat. They make sensors like that for Army artillery rounds (Copperhead), but they are so expensive the Army hasn’t used very many. Can’t imagine what that would do to the price of a baseball.
Heck, the umps throw out any ball now when it hits dirt most of the time. Very rarely will a pitcher get a ball with a scuff, and I’ve even seen a pitcher throw a scuffed ball out himself when he does manage to catch hitter and ump napping. So unless they are going to let balls get all scuffed up it will even more expensive I suppose. But I guess MLB has the cash.
Freegards
Missed field goals are exciting when your team is ahead by two points and the opponent misses a field goal with one second on the game clock. Missed field goals are also exciting when the opponent, up by six points, misses a field goal, it’s blocked and run back by your team for a touchdown.
” There’s no entertainment value in only one person in the stadium knowing if that’s a ball or strike.”
Part of it is consistency. If the ump is calling a large strike zone for both teams, then I don’t see a problem. However, if he is calling it for one team, or maybe a few batters that in the past complained about a call, it does take away from the integrity of the game.
Worst call in the game in my opinion is the first leg of the double play. Half the time second base isn’t even touched before relaying the ball to first. Ump says, ball beat the runner. Ballcrap! Touch the bag. That is part of the game.
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