SPORTS
Friday, July 12, 2019
East Oregonian
A9
‘Robot umpires’ debut in independent Atlantic League
By ROB MAADDI
Associated Press
YORK, Pa. — “Robot
umpires” have arrived.
The independent Atlan-
tic League became the first
American professional base-
ball league to let a computer
call balls and strikes Wednes-
day night at its All-Star
Game. Plate umpire Brian
deBrauwere wore an ear-
piece connected to an iPhone
in his pocket and relayed the
call upon receiving it from a
TrackMan computer system
that uses Doppler radar.
He crouched in his normal
position behind the catcher
and signaled balls and strikes.
“Until we can trust this
system 100%, I still have to
go back there with the inten-
tion of getting a pitch correct
because if the system fails, it
doesn’t pick a pitch up or if it
registers a pitch that’s a foot-
and-a-half off the plate as a
strike, I have to be prepared to
correct that,” deBrauwere said
before the game.
It didn’t appear deBrauw-
ere had any delay receiving
the calls at first, but players
noticed a big difference.
“One time I already had
caught the ball back from
the catcher and he signaled
strike,” said pitcher Daryl
Thompson, who didn’t real-
ize the technology was being
used until after he disagreed
with a call.
Infielder L.J. Mazzilli said
a few times hitters who struck
out lingered an extra second
or so in the batter’s box wait-
ing on a called third strike.
“The future is crazy, but
it’s cool to see the direction of
baseball,” said Mazzilli a son
of former big league player
and manager Lee Mazzilli.
The umpires have the abil-
ity to override the computer,
which considers a pitch a
strike when the ball bounces
and then crosses the zone.
TrackMan also does not eval-
uate checked swings.
Former big leaguer Kirk
Nieuwenhuis doesn’t like
the idea of giving umps veto
power.
“If the umpire still has
discretion, it defeats the pur-
pose,” said Nieuwenhuis, who
batted .221 with 31 homers
in 978 at-bats with the Mets,
Angels and Brewers.
About 45 minutes before
first pitch, the public address
announcer directed fans to
look up at the black screen
hanging off the face of the
upper level behind the plate
and joked they could blame
the computer for any dis-
agreements over calls.
“This is an exciting night
for MLB, the Atlantic League,
baseball generally,” said Mor-
gan Sword, MLB’s senior
vice president of economics
and operations. “This idea has
been around for a long time
and it’s the first time it’s been
brought to life in a compre-
hensive way.”
The experiment with
radar-tracking technology to
call balls and strikes was orig-
inally expected to begin at the
start of the season but experi-
enced some delays.
Atlantic League President
Rick White said it’s going to
AP Photo/ Julio Cortez
Home plate umpire Brian deBrauwere, left, huddles behind
catcher James Skelton, of the York Revolution, as the official
wears an earpiece during the first inning of the Atlantic League
All-Star minor league baseball game Wednesday in York, Pa.
be implemented league-wide
over the next few weeks.
“After that, we’re rela-
tively confident that it’s going
to spread through organized
baseball,” White said. “We’re
very excited about what this
portends not only for our
league but for the future of
baseball. What we know is
technology can help umpires
be more accurate and we’re
committed to that. We think
the Atlantic League is being
a pioneer for all of the sport.”
Sword said MLB hasn’t
received much pushback from
umpires.
“One of our focuses is not
to replace the umpire,” Sword
said. “In fact, we’re trying
empower the umpire with
technology. The home plate
umpire has a lot more to do
than call balls and strikes and
he’s going to be asked to do
all of that. We’re in touch with
our umpires’ union and this is
the first step of the process.”
DeBrauwere had no issue
with it.
“This is just another plate
job and I just get a little help
on this one so I feel very
relaxed going into this one,”
he said.
Strike zones are deter-
mined according to the aver-
age for players of that height
unless there’s already infor-
mation on a player’s particular
strike zone if they’ve played in
the majors at some point.
Pitcher Mitch Atkins
noticed pitches higher in the
strike zone were called.
“Technically,
they’re
strikes, but umpires never
called them,” Atkins said.
MLB Commissioner Rob
Manfred said there’s no time-
line on when the technology
will be used in the majors.
“We need to see how it
works, first in the Atlantic
League and then probably
other places, meaning other
parts of minor league base-
ball, before it comes to Major
League Baseball,” Manfred
said. “Kind of gets back to
the question that I was asked
earlier about the baseball, we
hear all the time from players,
why don’t we have an elec-
tronic strike zone, why don’t
we have an electronic strike
zone? We try to be responsive
to those sorts of expressions
of concern. We have spent a
lot of time and money on the
technology. It’s not just to
address player concerns.
“It obviously has broad-
casting uses. That same tech-
nology can be used in our
broadcast, which has value
to our fans. But we feel it’s
incumbent upon us — people
that play the game raised this
as something that could make
the game better. We kind of
feel it’s incumbent on us to
figure out whether we could
make it work. And that’s what
we’re doing.”
LATEST
PHONES
AP Photo/Sean D. Elliot, File
In this June 11, 2019, file photo, Washington Mystics forward
Elena Delle Donne pulls down a rebound next to Connecti-
cut Sun guard Layshia Clarendon during a WNBA basketball
game in Uncasville, Conn.
Elena Delle Donne
and A’ja Wilson are
All-Star captains
By DOUG FEINBERG
AP Basketball Writer
NEW YORK — Las
Vegas will have a lot of its
hometown players to root
for at the WNBA All-Star
Game on July 27.
Reigning rookie of the
year A’ja Wilson is one of
the team captains. She’ll
be joined by Aces team-
mates Liz Cambage and
Kayla McBride in the start-
ing lineup. Wilson may feel
pressure to draft her two
teammates for the game
when her team faces a group
led by Elena Delle Donne,
who is a captain for the sec-
ond straight season.
Wilson and Delle Donne
will select their teams from
the other starters chosen by
the fans, media and players.
Other frontcourt players
include Phoenix’s Brittney
Griner, Seattle’s Natasha
Howard and Connecticut’s
Jonquel Jones.
The four starting guards
are Los Angeles’ Chelsea
Gray, Seattle’s Jewell Loyd,
McBride and New York’s
Kia Nurse.
Fans make up 50 per-
cent of the vote to determine
the starters, while current
WNBA players and a media
panel accounted for 25 per-
cent each.
The
WNBA
also
announced Las Vegas’ Bill
Laimbeer and Washing-
ton’s Mike Thibault as the
coaches of the game. The
two teams have the best
records in the league as of
Thursday.
Laimbeer will coach
Delle Donne’s team as the
Aces have the best record in
the league and Thibault will
lead Wilson’s since the Mys-
tics have the second-best
mark.
The league’s coaches
will vote for the 12 reserves
— three guards, five front-
court players and four util-
ity choices. Those will
be announced Monday.
Coaches can’t vote for their
own players.
Delle Donne and Wil-
son will pick their rosters
beginning with the starters
and then the reserves. Delle
Donne gets the first pick of
the starters and Wilson gets
first choice of the reserves.
Delle Donne’s team lost to
Candace Parker’s squad last
year in the All-Star Game.
The Washington Mys-
tics star led the fan ballot-
ing, receiving 32,460 votes
followed by Wilson with
26,475.
Griner tied with Mercury
teammate DeWanna Bon-
ner in the overall voting, but
Griner was given the All-
Star starting nod by having
more fan votes.
Delle Donne and Gri-
ner were chosen for their
sixth All-Star Game. Cam-
bage, McBride and Gray
have made it for the third
time. Loyd, Jones and Wil-
son are All-Stars for the
second time. Howard and
Nurse will be making their
All-Star debuts.
The WNBA added fes-
tivities for the night before
the All-Star Game with a
3-point shootout, skills com-
petition and beach party.
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