One of the greatest things about the MLB The Show series is the immense customization available. The new quick counts are amazing -- if you want to use them of course -- and if you want an action-packed contest, simply switch on the option for all pitches to be strikes. Those aren't applicable to real life situations, but there is one aspect of The Show that could potentially be replicated: Turning off variable strike zones, aka, no more human umpires.
A strike is a strike is a strike. No need for catchers to frame the pitch on the corner and no more back-handed comments from the dugout to the closest ear of the umpire. It all could happen. We have the technology or at least the ability to develop it -- but baseball fans love the human element of the game.
Just how much human element is too much though? As human beings, umpires are subject to psychological tendencies -- more importantly, expectations -- that influence whether the next pitch gets called a ball or strike. But there is always a trade off. These errors could potentially be corrected, but that leaves us with a crossroads for what fans want the game of baseball to be. A contest focused solely on skill, void of outside screwups (see: umpires), or a game that reflects human nature, responding to the imperfect nature of our very being.
Sound Off: Would you support a system where computers called balls and strikes?
Sports Headlines for April 9, 2014
- It was a pretty boring two-day stretch in college basketball for anyone living outside of Connecticut.
- Lil' Batman shows up for the greatest ceremonial first pitch in MLB history. [Images]
- A UMass guard has come out as the first openly gay NCAA Division I basketball player.
- A boxer falls over the ropes and gets "knocked out." [YouTube]
- Jameis Winston recreated his championship-winning TD during a rain delay. [YouTube]
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