2014 MLB Learnersrealm Betting System

I am quite a strong proponent of the introduction of  an officiated digitised strike square to remove as much human error of umpiring out of the game. Don't even get me started on World Football or Soccer as many of you folk like to call it, which I believe should be upgraded like the NFL to allow each coach the ability to challenge a maximum of 2 refereeing decisions by video review.  Football and baseball are so far behind other big sports with regards to making the game fairer. Tennis, cricket, AFL, rugby, Athletics, - just about any major sport you name it, have got it right, but the biggest stalwarts are Football International and Baseball. They both have the technology in place to make it almost seamless in judging, but the traditionalists, the purists of the sports are reluctant to see the umpiring of the game improved. We will come to their arguments shortly.

What doesn't concern me  are the obvious legendary bad umpiring decisions which the newly implemented Instant replay may help to negate. What does concern me are the 1000's upon 1000s of bad strike zone calls. We are not talking about the occasional bad call here. In baseball for every game, the Umpire will OFTEN call a strike or a ball when it should be the opposite according to strike zone technology. In fact it is such a regular occurrence that it's gets embarrassing to watch. Umpires are known for having big strike zones or smaller zones.  The reason being a strike zone in baseball is a conceptual zone, which of course umpires will interpret very differently, but (excuse the pun) strikingly so. How can these men see the exact location in their imaginative strike zone of a curving fast fall at 97 mph and still come close to anything that resembles as being accurate in the real world? The point is they can't. Many people bet according to the individual umpires imaginative strike zone and for good reason.

The technology is currently in place to assess the given strike zone. Most Baseball coverages show the position of the given ball according an Automatic baseball ball and strike indicator. In fact there are already patents on this technology.  So I plead with MLB regulators now. Take the umpire's interpretation out of it! There wouldn't be any delay factor in the call, because the result would be relayed automatically from 'Hawkeye' (or whatever the approved technology is) and the umpire would signal as they always have.

Someone might say, 'Why should sports be fair when the rest of life isn't?' The WHOLE point of sports is that it takes people away from the chaos or the unfairness of life and rewards people for their athletic prowess, good hitting, hard work in a well regulated environment. Background, race, class isn't a factor, only sporting prowess! To want to leave the calls in the hands of imperfect umpires, because it reflects the unfairness of life and not be aiming for perfecting the rules and regulation of the sport and rewarding sporting prowess is  very flawed indeed. What is not impossible is perfecting the judgement of strike zones. That is well within the realm of possibility, in fact it is in the hear and now.

To recall those lovely words of Terence Mann:

It reminds of us of all that once was good and it could be again. Oh... people will come Ray. People will most definitely come.