Let me start by catching up the uninitiated as to what I am talking about in that post title.
FoxSports Detroit and I would assume all affiliates of the 29 other MLB teams - or, rather, all those with a contract with FoxSports use a technology called FoxTrax to show whether a (disputed) pitch was a ball or a strike (i.e. did the ump get it right?)
It's not my favorite technology since it often shows pitches that I believe were "on the black" to be off the plate. I just accept that I would be more of a pitchers umpire because I believe they deserve the benefit of the doubt considering all the drift to hitter-friendly conditions in the past generation (if you know baseball, you know the list: mound height, smaller ballparks, smaller strikezone, 'roided up players, juiced ball?, etc).
Okay, now that my readers are all hopefully caught up - here is the problem I have:
Over the weekend Detroit-ChiSox series, there was a pitch that White Sox DH/1B Adam Dunn took for a called strike three. A replay was shown and Tigers play-by-play broadcaster, Mario Impemba, audibly gasped and said "that was nowhere near the strike zone!" Later in the game when Adam Dunn came to the plate, Impemba again claimed Dunn was "called out earlier today on a pitch that clearly out of the strike zone.".
With that said...it should be a surprise to you, dear reader, that when FoxSports showed a replay using FoxTrax, it indicated the pitch was a strike!! Now, why would you invest in this technology if you clearly do not take it seriously and apparently don't expect your viewing audience to trust it? It makes no sense!
Moreover, I am curious about how the technology actually works? It is just a shmuck in the production truck just eyeballing an approximate square? That could sound like an inexact technology that would produce errors except that is how the First & 10 lines are generated on football broadcasts... and how often are those actually wrong? Pretty much never!
Also, I wanted to compare this technology to what they use for tennis tournaments these days. They have a replay system which routinely zooms in to show a ball in or out by mere millimeters and I have never, ever heard anyone suggest that the technology got it wrong. So I guess the analagous situation would be that Mario (& Rod Allen) were calling a tennis match and having replay show a ball was on the line but they actually insisted the ball was out by a foot!
All right, if I have not made myself clear, consider me on the side of technology. Mario Impemba got the call wrong. The replay indicated he was wrong. He was too stubborn to acknowledge it. The reason you have FoxTrax is because announcers like Mario Impemba don't know a strike when they see one!
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