Mostly clear; great sleeping weather.
ALLENTOWN, Pa. - There was a first-of-its-kind game at Coca-Cola Park Tuesday: It was the IronPigs' first home game with a new automated balls and strikes system. Park Lift
The strike zone is determined using strategically-placed cameras throughout the stadium and a computer system that will feed the homebase ump the determined call.
This season, the technology is making calls at all 30 Triple A ballparks. It's a test to see if the automated balls and strike system (ABS) could benefit Major League Baseball.
Fans who look around Coca-Cola Park might not even notice them: 30-some odd cameras, that resemble security cams, that are calling the shots - aka balls or strikes.
"Honestly, I don't think if you would've told people, I don't think they would have known that it was going on," laughed IronPigs Broadcasting and Media Relations Manager Sam Jellinek.
The tech, called Hawk-Eye, is also used in tennis.
"Major League Baseball has provided the infrastructure. They provide the staffing," said Jellinek. "We just kind of provide them the room in the press box."
A player's height is used to determine the strike zone.
"The height of the strike zone is set. 27% of their height is bottom. 51% is the top, and then, the width of the plate is 17 inches," he explained. "That's all fine tuned."
The home base umpire will still signal whether the pitch is a ball or a strike, and officials say there shouldn't be much of a delay.
Calls at games Tuesday through Thursday can't be challenged. Friday through Sunday, though: that's when Jellinek says things get exciting.
"Only the hitter, the pitcher and the catcher can do a challenge, and it has to be done within two seconds of the pitch coming home," explained Jellinek. "Then, we initiate the replay process, which we literally, just like in tennis, on the video board, we will show the replay of the pitch coming and whether or not the pitch hits the strike zone."
A team only gets three challenges, but if they challenge a call correctly, they get that particular challenge back.
Is the tech a home run? We asked an ump at the Moravian Academy-Bangor High baseball game.
"It's so electronic these days, the human element is being taken away, and that was always great for baseball," said PIAA Umpire Chuck Malitsch. "A little bit of an argument here. A little bit argument there."
Malitsch says that umps, like pitchers, try their best to have a "perfect" game.
Fans say take me out to the ballgame with the umpire being the person who makes the calls.
"I don't believe in all this modern technology," said Lillian Zito of Easton. "Maybe I'm old fashioned, but that's the way I feel about it."
Some like seeing team managers fight a call.
"They should argue. They should," said Michael Zito of Easton. "I like to see them get thrown out once in a while, too."
Jellinek says minor league players who get used to the changes could stand to benefit if they get pulled up to the majors.
"And I think that the players now understand that, yes, in a sense, they are guinea pigs with this but not without good reason," he said. "Or without the MBL truly considering the ramifications of these changes and that they are looking to potentially implement them."
Jellinek says, if the tech works, why not give it a fair chance?
"It's just kind of a new fun little feature," Jellinek commented. "If we can get things even more right than they already were, why not?"
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