CLEVELAND, Ohio — In a surprising twist that baseball purists might never have predicted, many Major League Baseball umpires have gone from resisting automated strike zones to actively embracing them. The reason? They’re tired of being blamed for calls that television technology misleadingly portrays as mistakes.

On a recent episode of the Cleveland Baseball Talk Podcast, former MLB umpire Dale Scott – who called nearly 4,000 regular-season games over a 32-year career – shared a fascinating insider’s perspective on how umpire sentiment about technology has dramatically shifted in recent years.

“In the last few years, I think most of the staff has gone from not quite sure, not really wanting to deal with that, to, you know what, let’s have at it,” Scott revealed. “Because with the on-screen strike zone, which is one of the worst things that ever happened to umpires, not because it shows a right or wrong. It’s because it’s not reliable, it’s not a hundred percent, but it is gospel to anybody watching it, obviously.”

The revelation challenges the common assumption that umpires universally oppose technological assistance. Instead, Scott explains, they’ve reached a breaking point with the current system where television broadcasts display strike zone boxes that viewers trust implicitly – despite their inaccuracies.

Scott’s conclusion? “It’s gotten to the point where, you know what, let’s go to this thing and maybe they’ll yell at the machine instead of us.”

This evolution in thinking mirrors what happened with instant replay, which umpires initially viewed with skepticism but eventually embraced. Scott shared a telling anecdote from before replay was implemented, when he and three other umpires had to make a home run call in Philadelphia:

“Everybody at home watching on television, they know what’s going on. And the four guys that have to make the decision has no access to replay,” Scott recounted. “What’s wrong with this picture? You’ve got the four guys that need to make that decision and are the only four guys in the universe haven’t seen the replay and won’t see a replay until after the game’s over.”

The frustration of being held to an impossible standard permeates Scott’s commentary. When praised for an umpire who missed only three calls in a recent World Series game, Scott noted how someone responded: “Yeah, that’s fine, but he wasn’t perfect.”

His reply cuts to the heart of the issue: “Well, if that’s the standard, I guess we lose, right? And frankly, neither are the players because they’re human. Also, no one’s perfect.”

Scott elaborated on the exceptional difficulty of calling balls and strikes: “You’re trying to call a three-dimensional strike zone with a ball that’s got a lot of movement and a lot of spin and a lot of velocity. And you have a catcher who’s moving, you have a hitter that might be crouched… there’s a lot of things going on in a real short amount of time.”

For those fascinated by this insider’s view of baseball’s technological revolution, the full conversation with Dale Scott on the Cleveland Baseball Talk podcast offers even more insights from one of baseball’s most experienced umpires. Listen now to hear his complete perspective on how technology is reshaping America’s pastime.

Podcast transcript

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