<font color=green>http://www.Boston.Com - Boston Globe News
April 9, 2001
AP
BOSTON (AP) The technology built to monitor planes and missiles
soon will be tracking Pedro Martinez's fastballs.
Cameras and other gizmos designed to help umpires tell whether
they're getting the hang of baseball's strict interpretation of the strike
zone were installed Monday at Fenway Park by QuesTec.
There are no plans to replace an umpire's judgment with that of
QuesTec's "Umpire Information System." But developers of the
technology and baseball officials say some objective feedback, which
umpires can see on laptops after a game, will help make for more
consistent calls.
"The only feedback available to umpires has been the opinions of
people that invariably have a worse angle on the pitch than they do,"
said Paul Baim, an engineer and baseball fan who has worked on the
technology for QuesTec and its collaborator, Atlantic Aerospace.
The system, an upgrade of technology used on Fox TV broadcasts,
pinpoints a pitch within two-fifths of an inch. Umpires will be able to
view pitch data, video clips and batter snapshots on their laptops after
a game. The final display format has yet to be determined.
QuesTec began testing the technology at a fall league last year and at
spring training in Arizona. The company, which has a five-year
contract with baseball, hopes to begin using the system at six
yet-to-be determined major league parks by May.
The system installed at Fenway marks the first time it has been
onsite at a Major League park for testing, though Fenway won't
necessarily be one of the six parks where it will be tested first in
game situations.
"Anything that can help us do our job better obviously is a good thing,
as long as it's realistic and really can help," umpire Jim Joyce said
before Monday's Colorado Rockies-Cardinals game in St. Louis.
"This job is hard enough and everybody's against us anyway.
"We try every day to be as close to perfect as possible and if this
helps us get a little bit closer, so be it," he said.
Umpire Bill Miller said he'd prefer the technology get a dry run in the
minor leagues.
"Not to say everybody shouldn't train on the job, but the minors are
where they're training people to become umpires," he said.
Ralph Nelson, baseball's vice president of umpiring, says the product
will be used to help umpires, not evaluate them.
"We don't intend to say one umpire's better than another because of
how the QuesTec read his strike zone," Nelson said. "We want to be
able to use it so we have consistency, which is what the clubs expect
and which is what the players expect."
First developed for the military, QuesTec's technology found a
post-Cold War home in the sports world. The company's products
include tennis and golf "ProView" broadcast enhancement
technology, and "PitchTrax," used by Fox and several major league
coaching staffs.
The new version of PitchTrax being developed for umpires knows
how to factor in the stance of the batter, whose crouch can raise or
lower the strike zone, and even how to ignore birds or hot-dog
wrappers that move through the field of view.
Umpires may seek postgame advice from a computer, but don't
expect to see them consulting one on the field.
"I think the human element in the umpires is as much an element of
the sport as hitting and running," Nelson said.
AP NEWS
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Copyright 2001
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