Kill the umpires and replace them with machines?
We’re going to talk about baseball today but it really has a lot to do with technology. Promise. The other night, Detroit Tigers pitcher Armando Gallaraga took a perfect game (no hits, no walks, minimum number of batters faced) into the bottom of the ninth inning. Cleveland’s Jason Donald hit the ball and ran toward first. Detroit first baseman Miguel Cabrera ran to get the ball, grabbed it, tossed it to Gallaraga who was covering first. The throw beat Donald to the plate but umpire Jim Joyce called him safe. Afterwards, Joyce watched the replay and admitted he made a mistake.
So why, if we have the technology to determine what actually happened, are we relying on error prone human beings?
We envision a world without umpires on today’s show. Ryan Zander of Sportvision joins us to talk about advanced camera systems his company makes that are in every ballpark in the majors and that can locate a ball better than a home plate umpire can (though Ryan is careful not to say that). We also speak with sportswriter Jonah Keri who has no fondness for umpires and thinks they’d be better off packed away for good.
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