Baseball is a sport that has seen a few new rule adjustments implemented for the 2023 season. You might have heard about the new pitch clock, or the restrictions on fielder shift positions, but one idea that is being tested in some minor league baseball games is the “robot” umpire.

Umpires help call the game as they see it, and yes, they will make mistakes, they’re human, but baseball needs to keep the umpires in the league in order to keep a level of spontaneity in the good old ball game.

(Unsplash / Chris Chow)

The argument that people are making in favor of robot umpires is that balls and strikes need to be automated in order to have a fair game. The other umpires (the ones that aren’t behind the plate) will remain needed in order to call safe or out and any other rules that may need observation throughout the game. But what about the umpire behind the plate?

If you have ever watched baseball before, you’ve probably seen an umpire behind the plate make a bad call. You look at the replay with the digital batters box and think, wow, what was the umpire thinking? But once you see a video of what it’s like to be behind the plate with an MLB pitcher on the mound, you will begin to understand how and why umpires make mistakes.

Umpire: David Rackley
Final: White Sox 2, Blue Jays 5#WhiteSox // #NextLevel#CWSvsTOR // #TORvsCWS

More stats for this game 👇https://t.co/9d4e84jfwE pic.twitter.com/tuGw1yPKue

— Umpire Scorecards (@UmpScorecards) April 25, 2023

Keeping plate umpires is a good idea because without them it takes away the “control” that the plate umpire has throughout the game. They don’t only call balls and strikes, they need to be watching the batter in case they want a timeout, or if the pitcher takes too long (using the pitch clock) and being the one in control of tracking the count for the batter. All of these little things that plate umpires do cannot be replicated by a robot umpire.

The game of baseball is better when you have a human behind the plate calling the game. Mistakes will happen, sometimes bad ones, but these umpires are trained professionals who strive to call the game to the best of their abilities.

(Pixabay / KeithJJ)

Where do we go from here? Well, the new rule changes have given plate umpires more to worry about throughout the game, especially with the batters “count” to step into the batter’s box and the newly implemented pitch clock. Robot umpires would never be able to multi-task and track everything that a trained umpire can do, so we need to just let them adapt and do their jobs.

The next time you see an umpire doing their job, thank them for what they do. Without them, the game of baseball would be an unorganized confusion which would not look anything like one of our favourite pastimes.