'RoboUmp' Gives Baseball Fans a Glimpse of the Future

Welcome to the future, baseball fans.

History was made at an independent league baseball game in San Rafael on Tuesday night. Reporter Cyrus Farivar checks in for Ars Technica:

On a picturesque evening in Marin County just north of San Francisco, the San Rafael Pacifics faced off against the Vallejo Admirals in what was billed as the first professional baseball game to be called by a piece of technology rather than a person. In this minor league showdown, the role of the balls-and-strikes umpire was played by a mounted three-camera tracking setup synced with a computer. (Two of the cameras are mounted at each end of the upper corner of the grandstands behind the plate; the third sits in center field.) Together, the devices comprise a system better known by its commercial moniker: Pitchf/x. It was soon dubbed #RoboUmp on Twitter.

But is "The Debut of the Automatic Umpire," as the event is being called, more minor league gimmick or technological breakthrough for the great American pastime?

For starters, RoboUmp isn’t going to replace #HumanUmps anytime soon. A league-standard two (human) umpires still worked the game — a home plate umpire was still needed to call fair and foul balls and plays at the plate.

In fact, the robotic system still relies on a living, breathing human to  actually verbalize balls and "striiiiikes." Last night, that voice was provided by former A’s (and Rockies, Diamondbacks, Orioles and Mariners) outfielder Eric Byrnes, who has taken on RoboUmp as “essentially a passion project,” according to Ars.

Byrnes helped organize the two-game debut of RoboUmp as a benefit for the Pat Tillman Foundation, promising to donate $10,000 if anyone is ejected for arguing balls and strikes.

"You face [Hall of Fame pitcher] Greg Maddux and he’d get a foot off the plate," Byrnes told Ars. "So if we have a chance to get it right, if we have a chance to get a pitch every time, why would we not?"

For a sport that is traditionally reluctant to change, more and more people might be inclined to agree with Byrnes’ sentiment.

"I feel like it speeds the game up more, it gets the hitters to swing at more pitches," Joshua Wong, Vallejo Admirals third baseman, told Ars after seeing RoboUmp tests before the game. "It’s good for the game. Just being more accurate and having better calls is going to help us more."

While not quite at RoboUmp levels of technology, Major League Baseball implemented a replay system for the first time last year. So far, replays have largely been viewed as a success -- even when they result in awkward delayed reactions.

Last week, the A’s waited two minutes and 45 seconds to celebrate a (challenged) walk-off victory. Wait for it:

As Ars points out, the technology behind Pitchf/x has been in use for 10 years, mainly for analytics and broadcast purposes.

But for something as crucial to the game as balls and strikes, relying solely on technology might be a bridge too far.

Jacob Pomrenke, a producer at the Society for American Baseball Research, emailed Ars Technica his take on RoboUmp:

"I'm sure many people around baseball will be watching the debut of this new system to see how it goes. There will always be some kinks to work out and it will be intriguing to see how the players respond (especially to calls they don't like!). The idea of using an automated system to call balls and strikes has been talked about for years. It'll be nice to finally have a real-life example to see how it works at the professional level, but there are still a lot of factors that would have to go into the decision to implement this type of system at the major-league or the affiliated minor-league level. This is a system that is very dependent on precise technology, and even the Pitchf/x system that MLB has used for nearly a decade now continues to have hiccups and glitches that require human intervention."

As for the debut, there were no obvious hiccups or glitches. And no one was ejected.

According to Ars' reporter Farivar, the game moved along briskly without controversy, and largely without action. “Chatter in the stands instead focused on the ump, most of it supportive. No one showered the tech with familiar boos or ‘You suck, ump!’ refrains.”

RoboUmp will be back in action Wednesday night as the two-day event continues at 7:05 p.m. at Albert Park in San Rafael.