Enbrace the tech. Let them come eat tater tots and the catering with me before the grounds crew comes up and turns the place into a dump. It is the funniest thing in the world watching an umpire tap his head stare at a screen in front of thousands of people to confirm that he wasn't even close.
Man, this is something else. Debatable. It's been talked about as of late. There's been calls about an automatic system for balls and strikes. Greg Maddux made a living on borderline calls in the strike zone. Pinpoint accuracy. Not every pitcher is Greg Maddux, but feels like he's getting squeezed by the umpire at home plate who has something against him or his team. Much like Eric Gregg who was behind the plate when Livan Hernandez had 15 strikeouts against Atlanta in the NLCS in '97. He hated the Braves and Bobby Cox. Feel like there's hardly any integrity in the game for umpires anymore. It's so biased and jaded. Much like politics. Baseball Doesn't Exist did a cover story about umpires last year. Pretty good. But there's a element that can change the outcome of a game that will make or break teams. Leaving us fans to debate what happened.
I saw that BDE video. It felt like he had set out to avoid being strongly opinionated, and did a good job of staying in the middle ground. If you had to pick, would you be for or against Trackman in the big leagues?
as a younger kid that never got to play baseball because of my leg at any level ive recently decided to learn to ump so i can at least have some way to be involved in the game, so the robo umps make me a little worried that ill never have a part in baseball even if i work increadbly hard.
I go to games to watch players, not umpires. As it stands now, the union protects poor umpires and hires based on nepotism. Get the calls correct or be replaced.
robo umps have no feelings. I remember once in college I complained about a high strike the ump said "didnt like that one wait till the next one" he was true to his word called me out on a pitch over my head.
The strike zone being subjective is an aspect of the game. Being able to trick the umpire is how the game is played. Robo umpires would drasticly change the game
Billy!! Scintillating storytelling. I had no idea this was headed to dystopian, scathing social commentary. As a fan of the game played with a ball and people's feet, I have been sickened with the use of technology to call offsides, goals, and review of serious fouls in the game I love. There are definite examples of calls being changed for the better but there are many examples of headscratchers and the feeling that all the pauses give referees more power to affect the outcome of the game. I don't think anyone has lost their job yet the way it's implemented and a bit of a different scenario I know, but my point is that humans make mistakes, sometimes intentionally, and that won't change until there aren't humans associated with the game. And I won't watch robots play baseball no matter how good they are. Well, maybe if they're throwing 150mph and hitting 700 foot homers...
That's a great point, that I probably should have made, or could make if I do a follow up to this... Other sports are all headed down the same road, and their approach will definitely influence baseball's process of accepting technology.
Thanks for the very timely video and subject matter. I've been trying to remain old school, but I am now leaning robot. The umpires lately, especially this year, seem to be lobbying for the robots by the very inconsistency of their strike zones. Whole teams of umpires have been so atrocious that they have taken a great amount of the joy in watching the games away from me and us. Inning after inning, we are throwing our hands up in despair as they negatively impact the game. The fans in the stands are doing the same thing. The commentators who are calling the game can't go one single inning without complaining about the continued inconsistencies of each umpire's strike zone. The Earl Weaver in me is barking at the umps on screen during nearly the entire game. I honestly don't know how the managers, the batters and the pitchers keep their cool as well as they do. The umpires suck as a whole. I appreciate your perspective and enjoyed your take on it. But the SUCK overrules the human element when it is as bad as it is right now. I swear, I think the umps are sucking on purpose because they want the robots to help them, instead of them trying to be better. Cold opinion, I know, but I've never seen it so bad personally.
I wasnt a fan of physically assaulting umpires until this year, where it seems like betting and petty bullshit are at the forefront of worse and worse game-deciding calls.
Never. I get impressed with umps when they get the calls right. Besides, I don’t want to watch a video game, I want the human errors in the game. I like how it is now.
Excellent video, man. As someone who’s gone through the high-amateur ranks and through pro umpire school, one thing that always took me aback was the lack of humanity we’re ascribed out there. Thank you for putting it in perspective
Oh ya, replace the umps with robots and half the leagues “superstars” won’t be so super anymore without all the borderline pitch’s going their way..and don’t tell me that doesn’t happen, I was a catcher for 2 decades…
Two things. Home plate umpires do more than call balls & strikes and have to be ready to make the call if the machine breaks down mid-pitch. In fact they should register a call electronically and compare their results with the automatic system. It might improve their eye and lower the error rate. Two: the suicide story is not at all meaningful without a follow up. Tumpane is hailed as a hero but the woman is now forgotten--probably hauled off to a psych ward, restrained and drugged out of her mind then prosecuted for attempted suicide. What's her status? Does/did she have a mental illness diagnosis? It's so easy for people to say they care when it's too late.
Suicide is a dicey issue, maybe im not broken enough to think past the gifts in my life and figure that ending it all would be worth the pain... And as a guy that's been in tumpane's situation, i'm absolutely biased. But if someone feels they have no recourse and nothing to live for and no one to turn to, they deserve help and the chance to fight another day. Most people are jaded by strife or drugs or pain when they make that choice, and maybe the state shouldn't be the one to dig them out of that hole with MKultra and narcotics, but not a lot of people have someone to turn to... Someone to stop them from giving up and giving it all to pain and "nothingness".
I just get sick of hearing people complain about an umpire who misses a call... on a 95+ fastball that just missed.. Not like that Gregg missed them... but just one.. and he's got to go.. tech may be nice.. but that stint in the atlantic league showed one thing.. Players are never happy.. since when the deal expired.. the AL banned the system from calling games and from what I've heard.. is vowing to never go back.. the number of ejections didn't change.. just who was calling the actual pitches.. and players were still not happy with it.. How fans can get mad at an umpire who scores a 97% game... but love a hitter who fails 7 out of 10 times is beyond me...
@@gim12345 No... with the few errors umps make... nope.. Hitters either win or lose games... They just can't accept blame when it's due... it's always the umpire... I bet the losing team in that game blame Pat Hoburg too... and he had a perfect score... no.. it's just the love to blaming someone else... The name of everything today... Accept blame when something good happens (even when it's someone elses praise)... pass it off when it's bad (Expecially when you're to blame)...
Very touching, awesome video. Very, very well-written. Every sentence is rich with information and meaning. ... I'll never forget mouthing off to an umpire in Legion game after I made an incredibly dumb base running mistake, and I was just doing it because I was embarrassed. He tossed my ass, and I deserved it. He told my coach he felt like I was trying to show him up. Feel super bad about that to this day, I'm sure it's long gone from his mind -- I hope.
Thanks for sharing that, Nathan. It speaks to the point that, at all other levels of baseball, umpires are a part of the players' community, and have a role in how those young athletes grow up. Only in professional baseball are umpires strangers with no stock in the community.
I'm all for robotic zone calls. I'm also for any technologies that eliminate human calls in general. Onward to eliminating the umpire position all together! I know that my opinion sounds cold, but I'm also for universal basic income as well. Onward to total enfeeblement! AGI will come soon enough and people will realize that knowledge workers are woefully and pathetically inefficient.
That's a bold internet statement and I won't let it pass without response. UBI is an interesting concept and HatBilly is laying out the need or at least one of the arguments for a need, that if industry wants to automate all the jobs out of existence, where will people find work? How will they make money? The culture of getting it right is, as so perfectly encapsulated above, not actually getting it right. Perhaps technological advances come with unintended consequences and there may be some intrinsic value to people interacting to craft experiences together that we will regret letting go of after it's purchased out from under us.
@@adameden8722 I asked ChatGPT to help me craft a response. Here is what we come up with: You raise some thoughtful points, adameden8722, and I appreciate the depth of your response. While I champion the use of technology for increasing efficiency, the transition to widespread automation and potentially to Universal Basic Income (UBI) indeed poses significant questions about the future of work and societal structure. Your concerns reflect the "lump of labor fallacy," which assumes a fixed amount of work; however, history shows us that as technology eliminates some jobs, it also creates new opportunities and industries. Moreover, Geoffrey Hinton has suggested that Homo sapiens might just be a stepping stone in the evolution of intelligence, a view that aligns with the increasing role AI is expected to play in our lives. This perspective forces us to confront the inherent inefficiencies of human labor. It takes over two decades to train a graduate student who then only works at peak creativity for a limited number of years, requiring sleep, food, vacation, and contending with mood swings and interpersonal conflicts. Humans, by nature, are inefficient. Nonetheless, I agree that there's an essential human element to many jobs that isn't merely about the function they serve but also about the experiences and interactions they foster. The possibility of losing these interactions as we automate more professions is a valid concern and not one to be taken lightly. It's crucial to consider not only how we can implement technology to improve efficiency but also how we can preserve the uniquely human aspects of our culture and daily interactions. As we stand on the brink of these significant changes, a balanced approach could help mitigate some of the unintended consequences you've mentioned. Let's continue this important conversation and explore how we can navigate these changes together, ensuring that technology serves humanity and not the other way around.
@@adameden8722 Without irony, I ask ChatGPT to help me craft a response to you. I think we did well: You raise some thoughtful points, adameden8722, and I appreciate the depth of your response. While I champion the use of technology for increasing efficiency, the transition to widespread automation and potentially to Universal Basic Income (UBI) indeed poses significant questions about the future of work and societal structure. Your concerns reflect the "lump of labor fallacy," which assumes a fixed amount of work; however, history shows us that as technology eliminates some jobs, it also creates new opportunities and industries. Moreover, Geoffrey Hinton has suggested that Homo sapiens might just be a stepping stone in the evolution of intelligence, a view that aligns with the increasing role AI is expected to play in our lives. This perspective forces us to confront the inherent inefficiencies of human labor. It takes over two decades to train a graduate student who then only works at peak creativity for a limited number of years, requiring sleep, food, vacation, and contending with mood swings and interpersonal conflicts. Humans, by nature, are inefficient. Nonetheless, I agree that there's an essential human element to many jobs that isn't merely about the function they serve but also about the experiences and interactions they foster. The possibility of losing these interactions as we automate more professions is a valid concern and not one to be taken lightly. It's crucial to consider not only how we can implement technology to improve efficiency but also how we can preserve the uniquely human aspects of our culture and daily interactions. As we stand on the brink of these significant changes, a balanced approach could help mitigate some of the unintended consequences you've mentioned. Let's continue this important conversation and explore how we can navigate these changes together, ensuring that technology serves humanity and not the other way around.
Hear, hear.
I know one umpire that could be replaced by Stevie Wonder and have it be an improvement
Enbrace the tech. Let them come eat tater tots and the catering with me before the grounds crew comes up and turns the place into a dump.
It is the funniest thing in the world watching an umpire tap his head stare at a screen in front of thousands of people to confirm that he wasn't even close.
Man, this is something else. Debatable. It's been talked about as of late. There's been calls about an automatic system for balls and strikes. Greg Maddux made a living on borderline calls in the strike zone. Pinpoint accuracy. Not every pitcher is Greg Maddux, but feels like he's getting squeezed by the umpire at home plate who has something against him or his team. Much like Eric Gregg who was behind the plate when Livan Hernandez had 15 strikeouts against Atlanta in the NLCS in '97. He hated the Braves and Bobby Cox. Feel like there's hardly any integrity in the game for umpires anymore. It's so biased and jaded. Much like politics. Baseball Doesn't Exist did a cover story about umpires last year. Pretty good. But there's a element that can change the outcome of a game that will make or break teams. Leaving us fans to debate what happened.
I saw that BDE video. It felt like he had set out to avoid being strongly opinionated, and did a good job of staying in the middle ground. If you had to pick, would you be for or against Trackman in the big leagues?
Bad calls are part of the game except when it’s one of my fantasy players
Last story is amazing
Agreed. Just found that yesterday. Can't believe it wasn't a bigger deal when it happened.
🤖
as a younger kid that never got to play baseball because of my leg at any level ive recently decided to learn to ump so i can at least have some way to be involved in the game, so the robo umps make me a little worried that ill never have a part in baseball even if i work increadbly hard.
You're right, it's most definitely an opportunity for more people to be a part of the game, (if they can handle the abuse). 😂
Baseball is not perfect. The umpires are just as big a part of the game as the ball and glove.
I go to games to watch players, not umpires. As it stands now, the union protects poor umpires and hires based on nepotism. Get the calls correct or be replaced.
Stellar video as always!
I really appreciate you being here!
robo umps have no feelings. I remember once in college I complained about a high strike the ump said "didnt like that one wait till the next one" he was true to his word called me out on a pitch over my head.
That's a good point! In weighing pros and cons, is losing the bad umps worth losing the good umps? Hard to say.
Hey this is a great video. Very deep.
Well this certainly took several surprising and loving turns
Thanks for hanging in there all the way through!
Fantastic Video
I appreciate it!
This was an awesome thought balloon. Also really appreciated the last part that bookends the video. Felt like an appropriate addition.
Thanks for being here! Glad you enjoyed that.
The strike zone being subjective is an aspect of the game. Being able to trick the umpire is how the game is played. Robo umpires would drasticly change the game
Billy!! Scintillating storytelling. I had no idea this was headed to dystopian, scathing social commentary. As a fan of the game played with a ball and people's feet, I have been sickened with the use of technology to call offsides, goals, and review of serious fouls in the game I love. There are definite examples of calls being changed for the better but there are many examples of headscratchers and the feeling that all the pauses give referees more power to affect the outcome of the game. I don't think anyone has lost their job yet the way it's implemented and a bit of a different scenario I know, but my point is that humans make mistakes, sometimes intentionally, and that won't change until there aren't humans associated with the game. And I won't watch robots play baseball no matter how good they are. Well, maybe if they're throwing 150mph and hitting 700 foot homers...
That's a great point, that I probably should have made, or could make if I do a follow up to this... Other sports are all headed down the same road, and their approach will definitely influence baseball's process of accepting technology.
Thanks for the very timely video and subject matter. I've been trying to remain old school, but I am now leaning robot. The umpires lately, especially this year, seem to be lobbying for the robots by the very inconsistency of their strike zones. Whole teams of umpires have been so atrocious that they have taken a great amount of the joy in watching the games away from me and us. Inning after inning, we are throwing our hands up in despair as they negatively impact the game. The fans in the stands are doing the same thing. The commentators who are calling the game can't go one single inning without complaining about the continued inconsistencies of each umpire's strike zone. The Earl Weaver in me is barking at the umps on screen during nearly the entire game. I honestly don't know how the managers, the batters and the pitchers keep their cool as well as they do. The umpires suck as a whole. I appreciate your perspective and enjoyed your take on it. But the SUCK overrules the human element when it is as bad as it is right now. I swear, I think the umps are sucking on purpose because they want the robots to help them, instead of them trying to be better. Cold opinion, I know, but I've never seen it so bad personally.
I wasnt a fan of physically assaulting umpires until this year, where it seems like betting and petty bullshit are at the forefront of worse and worse game-deciding calls.
Thanks for checking it out and sharing your opinion here, Jerry!
Credit to you and credit to Greg Brown. Genuinely touching video
Absolutely! I need to get Greg in the description, at the least. Fantastic broadcaster.
Never. I get impressed with umps when they get the calls right.
Besides, I don’t want to watch a video game, I want the human errors in the game. I like how it is now.
A very good point. I think it's a real possibility that we could change baseball to the point that it's no longer baseball.
Hell no
Excellent video, man. As someone who’s gone through the high-amateur ranks and through pro umpire school, one thing that always took me aback was the lack of humanity we’re ascribed out there. Thank you for putting it in perspective
It's a noble undertaking! I've umped many a little league game, can't imagine the increased pressure at the upper levels. Big time respect!
@@Hatbilly Thanks man! No matter the level, to want to umpire takes a super love of baseball, so we all should just have a little more fun out there
Oh ya, replace the umps with robots and half the leagues “superstars” won’t be so super anymore without all the borderline pitch’s going their way..and don’t tell me that doesn’t happen, I was a catcher for 2 decades…
Two things. Home plate umpires do more than call balls & strikes and have to be ready to make the call if the machine breaks down mid-pitch. In fact they should register a call electronically and compare their results with the automatic system. It might improve their eye and lower the error rate. Two: the suicide story is not at all meaningful without a follow up. Tumpane is hailed as a hero but the woman is now forgotten--probably hauled off to a psych ward, restrained and drugged out of her mind then prosecuted for attempted suicide. What's her status? Does/did she have a mental illness diagnosis? It's so easy for people to say they care when it's too late.
Suicide is a dicey issue, maybe im not broken enough to think past the gifts in my life and figure that ending it all would be worth the pain... And as a guy that's been in tumpane's situation, i'm absolutely biased.
But if someone feels they have no recourse and nothing to live for and no one to turn to, they deserve help and the chance to fight another day. Most people are jaded by strife or drugs or pain when they make that choice, and maybe the state shouldn't be the one to dig them out of that hole with MKultra and narcotics, but not a lot of people have someone to turn to... Someone to stop them from giving up and giving it all to pain and "nothingness".
I just get sick of hearing people complain about an umpire who misses a call... on a 95+ fastball that just missed.. Not like that Gregg missed them... but just one.. and he's got to go.. tech may be nice.. but that stint in the atlantic league showed one thing.. Players are never happy.. since when the deal expired.. the AL banned the system from calling games and from what I've heard.. is vowing to never go back.. the number of ejections didn't change.. just who was calling the actual pitches.. and players were still not happy with it.. How fans can get mad at an umpire who scores a 97% game... but love a hitter who fails 7 out of 10 times is beyond me...
You are evading,a hitter may miss but If he gets 4 balls instead of 3 strikes he advances and that's the problem,umpires screw games and performances.
@@gim12345 No... with the few errors umps make... nope.. Hitters either win or lose games... They just can't accept blame when it's due... it's always the umpire... I bet the losing team in that game blame Pat Hoburg too... and he had a perfect score... no.. it's just the love to blaming someone else... The name of everything today... Accept blame when something good happens (even when it's someone elses praise)... pass it off when it's bad (Expecially when you're to blame)...
Very touching, awesome video. Very, very well-written. Every sentence is rich with information and meaning. ... I'll never forget mouthing off to an umpire in Legion game after I made an incredibly dumb base running mistake, and I was just doing it because I was embarrassed. He tossed my ass, and I deserved it. He told my coach he felt like I was trying to show him up. Feel super bad about that to this day, I'm sure it's long gone from his mind -- I hope.
Thanks for sharing that, Nathan. It speaks to the point that, at all other levels of baseball, umpires are a part of the players' community, and have a role in how those young athletes grow up. Only in professional baseball are umpires strangers with no stock in the community.
Awesome umpire history 👍
Thanks! Quite the origin story. 😂
Really Great video, Man.
Thanks for being here!
I'm all for robotic zone calls. I'm also for any technologies that eliminate human calls in general. Onward to eliminating the umpire position all together! I know that my opinion sounds cold, but I'm also for universal basic income as well. Onward to total enfeeblement! AGI will come soon enough and people will realize that knowledge workers are woefully and pathetically inefficient.
No problem with respectfully agreeing to disagree! Argue with people in the comments, it helps with engagement. 🤣
That's a bold internet statement and I won't let it pass without response. UBI is an interesting concept and HatBilly is laying out the need or at least one of the arguments for a need, that if industry wants to automate all the jobs out of existence, where will people find work? How will they make money? The culture of getting it right is, as so perfectly encapsulated above, not actually getting it right. Perhaps technological advances come with unintended consequences and there may be some intrinsic value to people interacting to craft experiences together that we will regret letting go of after it's purchased out from under us.
@@adameden8722 I asked ChatGPT to help me craft a response. Here is what we come up with: You raise some thoughtful points, adameden8722, and I appreciate the depth of your response. While I champion the use of technology for increasing efficiency, the transition to widespread automation and potentially to Universal Basic Income (UBI) indeed poses significant questions about the future of work and societal structure. Your concerns reflect the "lump of labor fallacy," which assumes a fixed amount of work; however, history shows us that as technology eliminates some jobs, it also creates new opportunities and industries.
Moreover, Geoffrey Hinton has suggested that Homo sapiens might just be a stepping stone in the evolution of intelligence, a view that aligns with the increasing role AI is expected to play in our lives. This perspective forces us to confront the inherent inefficiencies of human labor. It takes over two decades to train a graduate student who then only works at peak creativity for a limited number of years, requiring sleep, food, vacation, and contending with mood swings and interpersonal conflicts. Humans, by nature, are inefficient.
Nonetheless, I agree that there's an essential human element to many jobs that isn't merely about the function they serve but also about the experiences and interactions they foster. The possibility of losing these interactions as we automate more professions is a valid concern and not one to be taken lightly. It's crucial to consider not only how we can implement technology to improve efficiency but also how we can preserve the uniquely human aspects of our culture and daily interactions. As we stand on the brink of these significant changes, a balanced approach could help mitigate some of the unintended consequences you've mentioned. Let's continue this important conversation and explore how we can navigate these changes together, ensuring that technology serves humanity and not the other way around.
@@adameden8722 Without irony, I ask ChatGPT to help me craft a response to you. I think we did well: You raise some thoughtful points, adameden8722, and I appreciate the depth of your response. While I champion the use of technology for increasing efficiency, the transition to widespread automation and potentially to Universal Basic Income (UBI) indeed poses significant questions about the future of work and societal structure. Your concerns reflect the "lump of labor fallacy," which assumes a fixed amount of work; however, history shows us that as technology eliminates some jobs, it also creates new opportunities and industries.
Moreover, Geoffrey Hinton has suggested that Homo sapiens might just be a stepping stone in the evolution of intelligence, a view that aligns with the increasing role AI is expected to play in our lives. This perspective forces us to confront the inherent inefficiencies of human labor. It takes over two decades to train a graduate student who then only works at peak creativity for a limited number of years, requiring sleep, food, vacation, and contending with mood swings and interpersonal conflicts. Humans, by nature, are inefficient.
Nonetheless, I agree that there's an essential human element to many jobs that isn't merely about the function they serve but also about the experiences and interactions they foster. The possibility of losing these interactions as we automate more professions is a valid concern and not one to be taken lightly. It's crucial to consider not only how we can implement technology to improve efficiency but also how we can preserve the uniquely human aspects of our culture and daily interactions. As we stand on the brink of these significant changes, a balanced approach could help mitigate some of the unintended consequences you've mentioned. Let's continue this important conversation and explore how we can navigate these changes together, ensuring that technology serves humanity and not the other way around.