Why Not Just Computerize Sports Refs And Umps?
from the who-needs-the-human-element? dept
Last week, Major League Baseball introduced instant replay for the first time (oddly, MLB rushed the introduction mid-season, with no real testing), which has many wondering if the rather "human" element of umpires making bad calls will be a lost element of the game. While it can suck when such wrong calls go against your team, the umpires' ability to screw up has always been a part of the appeal to many fans of the game. However, Farhad Manjoo over at Slate is wondering about the inevitable next step: moving to completely automated umpires and referees in various sports. He compares the Hawk Eye system that is used in tennis to determine whether a ball is in or out to the efforts in MLB, but points out that computerized systems are far from perfect. In fact, they can lead to some highly questionable results, such as a situation in which every single human observer believed a ball was out, and even television replays showed the ball appeared out -- but Hawk Eye claimed it was in, and that the problem was that human eyes weren't good enough to see if the ball was really in or out. At that point, it makes you wonder whether or not such a machine ruling really makes sense.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Filed Under: automation, computers, referees, sports, umpires
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Comptuters are right
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Re: Comptuters are right
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The real problem
Get the refs off the field.
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well nothing could be worse
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Why not just jump all the way in?
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Read the article
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Why not simulate it all?
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'nuff said.
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Interesting idea . . . not a sports guy, but
There's one big problem with computerizing the refs, though. What would the fans and sports commentators have to blame when their team loses an important match? It seems in the sports section the day after every big game, there's some lunkhead complaining about this or that call being wrong, countered by some other lunkhead from the other team complaining about this or that other call being wrong.
Plus, I think they have a union, so they'd probably still have to be employed, but now they'd be the guy that hits the button when the computer catches something wrong. Kind of a waste of energy, if you ask me.
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Bad calls are appealing?
the umpires' ability to screw up has always been a part of the appeal to many fans of the game
What could possibly be appealing to a fan about an official screwing up? If a bad call is against your team, then you feel bad because your team was unfairly penalized. If the bad call favors your team, you may feel good, but you shouldn't because your team is unfairly benefiting at the cost of the other team.
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Are you all kidding me?
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technology has its place
Machines won't replace baseball umpires or football/basketball refs, though. Baseball is extremely tradition-bound, and umpires calling the strikes and put-outs are very much a part of that tradition (including the entertaining screaming machines they sometimes get into with managers and batters). Refs in football and basketball are constantly making judgement calls about which fouls to call. If that was done by a machine, there would be six fouls called on every play, and the crowd would head for the exits by the end of the first quarter.
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Hawk Eye works with Tennis
There are currently calls for similar technologhy to be used in squash aswell.
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