MLB - ABS

The Major League baseball season is barely underway.  For those of you who are not ardent fans, I want you to be aware of a new system being used to help insure the correctness in the calling of balls and strikes.  It is called the ABS Challenge System.  ABS stands for Automatic Ball Strike system.  No kidding, that's the best they could come up with.  

Here's how it works.  Before the season ever started, every player and potential player was measured for standing height.  This figure is input into a computer program that will determine if a pith is high or low.  The league has determined that the strike zone should be, of course, between the inside and outside of the plate but, moreover, between 27% and 53% of a batters height.  In the old days it was between the top of the knee caps and the bottom of the arm pits.  Some players took advantage of this by crouching when the stand at the plate.  You won't see that so much any more.

In any case, each team has a chance to challenge the umpire's call twice in a game.  If they challenge and win, they don't lose that challenge.  Be wrong twice and you're done.  Batters and pitchers or catchers are allowed to challenge - they do it by touching the top of their head. The computer system kicks in and everyone can watch a video on the scoreboard of the ball going through the strike zone. The computer determines if the umpire was right or wrong and the call is upheld or changed.  

Here's the deal.  I love it.  More excitement!  More drama!  More accuracy?!? 

Take me out to the ballgame!