A PLAYER CALLS FOR ROBOT UMPIRES TO CALL BALLS AND STRIKES. Ben Zobrist complained the other night about what he felt was a bad third strike call. As this article by Jesse Rogers on the ESPN website reports, Zobrist said he told the umpire who made the call, “‘That’s why we want an electronic strike zone,'” The umpire threw Zobrist out of the game. It was the first time Zobrist has been thrown out of the game in a career that began in 2006.
I have argued a number of times, including here, that there would be increasing pressure from improved technology to have computers call balls and strikes.