Major League Baseball started experimenting with robots calling balls and strikes in the independent Atlantic League in 2019 and used the computer at Low-A in 2021. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez, File)The education of robot umpires has been complicated by an open secret in baseball for the past 150 years: The strike zone called on the field doesn’t match the one mapped out in the rule book. Before the Automated Ball-Strike System is ready for the major leagues, there has to be agreement on what a strike is. “A pitcher has big curveballs that cross the zone and end up a ball, but the zone has it as a strike. And critically to umpires’ reputations, he says television graphics overlaying the strike zone frequently mislead fans.
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