Nomad: All your base are belong to us
Posted on 08/23/2008 12:39:55 PM PDT by kellynla
Sometime soon, perhaps as early as the end of August, Major League Baseball will enter a new era, an electronic era well beyond center field cameras, radar guns and QuesTec. The era of instant replay will represent a fundamental shift in the way the game is called.
On Wednesday, MLB officials and the World Umpires Association ratified an agreement for the use of instant replay. A source close to the negotiations said an agreement between MLB and the Players Association is expected to be ratified within 48 hours. From there, it's just a matter of time before the final touches are applied to the process in hopes of having it operating in an orderly manner for the most important time of the season -- October.
"We're still working at it," said Bob DuPuy, MLB's president and chief operating officer.
The move to instant replay was hastened by a flurry of missed calls and controversial plays during a two-week period in May. Several of them came in highly visible games, including an ESPN Sunday Night game at Yankee Stadium when home plate umpire Bob Davidson overruled a home run call made by third-base umpire Mike Reilly, who had gotten the call right initially, as replays confirmed. Davidson was over 100 yards away from the play when he made the incorrect call, which, in football terms, was the equivalent of the back judge making an out-of-bounds call from one goal line to the other.
(Excerpt) Read more at sports.espn.go.com ...
Good. Let’s start by crediting Josh Willingham with the home run the umps stole from him the other day.
What will Lou Piniella do now? Kick dirt on the replay camera?
The Marlins have been maybe the most affected team. While the opening day HR for the Mets was called wrong, since then there have been 5 (FIVE) going the other way.
A couple of these have been game changers too.
Baseball needs this and they need it now before someone gets really screwed.
With modern computers and RFID technology simply put sensors in the balls, uniforms and home plate and let the computer make the call.
Yeah, let's just get rid of umpires and turn every game into automated predictable crap.
Maybe the managers can kick dirt and curse at the Hal9000 monitoring the game.
MGR: “Why you bleep bleep machine...shove it where the sun don’t shine!”
AutoUmp: “Sorry — I can’t do that Dave...”
I think Lou might want to throw a base at the camera...
This Star Trek photo, I believe, is from one of my favorite episodes in which a small satellite, which was launched from 20th century Earth and was apparently floating around deep space until it met up with a superior computer which was designed by a future scientist.
The software from earth satellite, which was originally designed by NASA to analyze and eliminate microbes and bacteria, somehow blends with the software from this future computer .... and then thinks its NEW mission is to destroy anything which is not “perfect.”
Long story short, the satellite is found floating in space by the Enterprise. It thinks Capt. Kirk is the person who designed it in the first place (because the name Kirk sounds similar to that scientist’s name, which was Kirkus, or something like that).
Thus the satellite will only obey commands from Capt. Kirk.
Being indestructable, the satellite goes about attempting to kill the Enterprise and its crew because they are not “perfect”.
Kirk finally tricks the satellite into committing suicide by telling it that he (Kirk) is not perfect. This so freaks out the satellite’s software that it blows itself up.
I probably screwed up explaining the episode, but it was cool none the less.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.