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The electronic strike zone will be used in all 30 Class AAA parks in 2023, sources told ESPN, seemingly another significant step toward the implementation of the technology at the big-league level in the near future. The Automatic Balls and Strikes system, commonly referred to as ABS, will be deployed in two different ways. Half of the Class AAA games will be played with all of the calls determined by an electronic strike zone, and the other half played with an ABS challenge system similar to that used in professional tennis.

Angel Hernandez has certainly lived up to his reputation in the first month of the 2021 MLB season. During the Indians-Royals game in Kansas City Tuesday night, Hernandez admitted that he essentially guessed on a play in the bottom of the third that had to be overturned due to his mistake, which he said was a result of getting “blinded by the outfield scoreboard.” With runners on second and third, Royals catcher Salvador Perez hit a deep fly ball to right-center that landed between two outfielders on the warning track. But Hernandez, who was stationed at first base, signaled that...

The electronic strike zone, also commonly refereed to as "robot umpires," could make its way to Major League Baseball at some point during the next five seasons. The Major League Baseball Umpires Association agreed to cooperate with Major League Baseball in the development and testing of the electronic strike zone, Associated Press' Ben Walker and Ronald Blum report. **SNIP** Last month, Manfred said the automated strike zone will be used in some minor league ballparks during the 2020 season as MiLB works to improve the technology. Here's the short version of how the technology works: The home plate umpire will...

Major League Baseball is investigating a tweet from a longtime umpire who said there would be a “cival war” if the House moves to impeach President Trump. MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred confirmed to ESPN that the organization is involved in the incident, which began when umpire Rob Drake, 50, tweeted late Tuesday that he was going to buy an AR-15 rifle “because if you impeach MY PRESIDENT this way, YOU WILL HAVE ANOTHER CIVAL WAR!!! #MAGA2020”

Former Major League Baseball umpire Kenneth Kaiser has died. Kaiser worked in the American League from 1977 to 1999. He spent 13 years in the minor leagues and 23 years in the major leagues.

Having umpires call balls and strikes is one of the most fundamental aspects of both the game of baseball and the profession of Major League Baseball umpires. But as we get better at recognizing what is really a strike it is becoming painfully obvious that it is time for the umps to give up the responsibility.

Major League Baseball announced the 14 umpiring assignments for the League Championship Series round Thursday, and many of the boys in blue selected didn't have the best of seasons calling balls and strikes. According to rankings published by Bloomberg Businessweek, the crew chief for the ALCS, Joe West, was the second-least accurate umpire behind home plate during the 2014 season. By percentage of correct calls, West was 83rd out of 84 umpires who made at least 1,000 total calls. West was right 83.91 percent of the time. The best umpire who made at least 1,000 calls was Paul Schreiber at...

Try this one, if you will. Umpires can botch home run calls (hello, Angel Hernandez) and get away with it, more or less. Sometimes, they can botch pitching change rules (hello, Fielden Culbreth) with a little help from managers who don’t know the rules quite yet (hello, Bo Porter). But who knew our beloved human elements (aren’t you getting exhausted of that tiresome phrase and its customary accompanying rhetoric?) could miss a no-questions-asked application from the latest inductee into the Salivation Army? In the second inning Monday night, Miami Marlins righthander Alex Sanabia had just been taken into the seats...

Should we be shocked now, or later? Come December, there's going to be a sit-down between baseball players and all three branches of baseball government---including its judiciary, which is as much under fire of late as the Supreme Court finds itself over actual or alleged hot-button rulings. This extraordinary meeting was prodded by the Major League Baseball Players' Association, enough of whose rank and rile think that, much the way those in the ideological wars see the Supreme Court, baseball's judiciary, the umpires, are a little too inclined to judicial tyranny and a little too disinclined to full disclosure. No,...

Feinstein: Supremes are not umpires Sen. Dianne Feinstein's opening statement in the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor indicated she thinks much of what is said and promised by nominees in Senate confirmation hearings is a bunch of bunk. Feinstein is an easy yes vote on Sotomayor, but she used her statement to take a swipe at Chief Justice John Roberts, who in his confirmation described judges as umpires whose job is to call balls and strikes, not play the game. Feinstein's words could be read as part justification for her partisan votes on Roberts and Alito and part...

Jason Giambi of the New York Yankees took steroids. So did Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants, though he claims not to have known what they were. Ho-hum. These revelations are of interest only to fans who deify athletes and to politicians who use any excuse to increase their power. Like Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), in this case. Steroids have long been used by gym rats to create bulging muscles and professional wrestlers to build bulk. It was long assumed, obviously with good reason, that other sporting pros, particularly baseball and football players, often sought artificial aid in adding...

Deaf ballplayer 'Dummy' Hoy succeeded on and off field Deborah Kendrick July 20, 2003 His life, all 99 1/2 years of it, tells perhaps one of the most classically American stories any of us have heard in a long time. William "Dummy" Hoy, deaf since age 3, was outside his Houcktown, Ohio, cobbler shop, as was his custom so many afternoons, throwing and chasing balls with the children of the town. A passer-by, recognizing his talent, invited him to come play a game with Findlay's baseball team in a town 12 miles away. Before long, Hoy was heading for Wisconsin...

It may be baseball's biggest technology controversy since lights were installed at Wrigley Field. Like Chicago's beloved baseball park, the umpire's home behind the plate is a somewhat sacred spot. So adding technology that claims to improve the game does not sit well with everyone, especially those who control the play on the field. Major League Baseball umpires are fighting the QuesTec Umpire Information System, a series of cameras that track each pitch and compare the machine's ruling with the ump's call. The technology, which first was tested by the major leagues in 2001, is currently used in 10 ballparks....

<p>Referees, umpires and other sports officials from pro leagues to the recreational level increasingly are under siege from coaches, players and a critical populace grown accustomed to a replay culture. A recent string of verbal and even physical attacks from coaches and administrators in the pro and college games is exceeded by less publicized attacks in the high school and recreation leagues — two or three cases of physical abuse each week, according to the National Association of Sports Officials.</p>

Baseball is using advanced electronics to second-guess its umpires - Guess who’s not happy about it Oct. 7 issue — On the mound at Fenway Park, Red Sox pitcher Tim Wakefield winds up and sends a 68mph knuckleball fluttering toward home plate. Just as the ball reaches the plate, it makes a sudden downward plunge before disappearing into the catcher’s mitt. Umpire Joe Brinkman, crouched on one knee and peering over the catcher’s left shoulder, calls ball one.

The state of Illinois has put down an outbreak of illegal sports activity in the southwest Chicago suburb of Darien. Agents of the law in Illinois once were concerned with Al Capone, Bugs Moran, Machine Gun Jack McGurn and John Dillinger. Now the protectors of truth, justice and the American way have descended on Darien. They've found 108 violations of state law, each and every one connected with baseball. Is it about gambling? No. Maybe it's about game-fixing? No. If not those scandals, how about androstenedione? No. What's happening in Darien, if tried by a hanging judge, could cost the...