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Saturday, October 31, 2009

Letter to the Editor: The urgent case for robot umps!


Calgary Sun (Alberta)
October 29, 2009

Dear Editor

Steven Spielberg is producing a movie, Real Steel, about robot boxers. The real sports world needs not robot boxers but robot umpires. Tim McClelland, not even looking at the play, believed in his heart that the New York Yankees' Nick Swisher did not tag up; robots have no hearts. Phil Cuzzi did not see the Minnesota Twins' Joe Mauer's double land fair down the line; robots would employ the Hawk-Eye officiating system used in tennis.

The robot behind the plate would use the pitch f/x zone system to call balls and strikes. Pressure-activated bases and radio-transmitting baseballs would allow robots to decide if the runner's foot touched the bag before the ball hit the baseman's glove. Purists argue that more use of instant replay/robots would slow down the game. On the contrary, it would speed it up because managers and players would not waste time arguing with robots. The robots also would make the pitcher pitch every 20 seconds.


DANIEL MARTIN

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Of course managers and players would not argue with robots, because the robots would destroy them.