Baseball can be a game of physics and math, so I was surprised during a recent major league game in Seattle when technical scoring silenced the crowd.
In a May 1 game, Kansas City Royals pitcher Cole Ragans threw a fastball to hit Leo Rivas of the Seattle Mariners in the lower left corner of the strike zone. The umpire called a strike, ejecting Rivas — until Rivas hit his helmet twice.
That action makes Automatic Ball-Strike, or ABS, a pitch review challenge, which must be activated within seconds of the ball being caught.
All eyes turned to the big screen to watch the pitch animation. It showed, powerfully, that the ball hit the corner of the box, confirming that the umpire had made the right call, much to the dismay of the crowd.
ABS is a product of a partnership between Major League Baseball and T-Mobile. This technology was called up this season after more than 7,000 test games in the minor leagues. The system is now used in all 29 MLB stadiums in the US (the Toronto Blue Jays ballpark does not yet use ABS because T-Mobile does not have a license to operate in Canada).
When ABS is challenged, baseball fans see the results on the big screen in seconds.
Speaking at T-Mobile Park in Seattle before that early May game, John Stanton, owner and chairman of the Seattle Mariners (and founder of VoiceStream Wireless, which became T-Mobile), explained that the challenge program was created after new TV technology changed the way people experienced the game.
Unlike stadium fans who rely on the umpire behind the plate, viewers at home could tell whether pitches were balls or strikes, thanks to the visual box where strikes were televised.
“It showed when there was a bad call. And the umpires were embarrassed about it, and we were in a situation where it undermined the integrity of baseball,” Stanton said. “It was important to find a way to fix that.”
How the ABS system calls strikes and balls
Behind the scenes — or rather, surrounding the park — are 12 hawk cameras facing the mound and home plate to track handoffs and ball movement.
Cameras at T-Mobile Field in Seattle capture data about every pitch as part of the Automatic Ball-Strike challenge system.
They communicate via T-Mobile’s private 5G network inside the park using Ericsson Dot radios, easily overlooked discs the size of dinner plates installed in various locations, including each team’s dugout and press box above home plate. The network uses T-Mobile’s licensed N41 spectrum (2.5 GHz) to minimize interference.
The round Ericsson Dot radio in the corner of the Mariners dugout is part of the Automatic Ball-Strike system.
Another key to the network is low latency, averaging 2.3 milliseconds, according to T-Mobile’s LinkedIn post by John Saw, president of technology and chief technology officer.
The ABS system analyzes the pitch, creates an animation of where the ball landed on the strike zone and displays it on the big screen for fans to see. T-Mobile’s internal goal is to convert 17 seconds from when a player touches his head. Stanton said, in practice, it happens within 15.4 seconds on average.
While one might argue that the animation of the pitch crossing the plate and appearing in a zoomed-in representation of the strike zone is technically unnecessary, it is more compelling to the audience than a simple binary decision of whether it is a strike. Leading up to the call can feel as dramatic to the crowd as waiting to see if the outfielder will catch a fly ball.
The ABS system catches pitches on the edge of the strike zone.
“When the call is made, the fans, the umpires and the players all get it at the same time,” Stanton said, creating “that catch-your-breath feeling that’s so special.”
MLB maintains a video record of all ABS challenges in the MLB Film Room, but fans can head to the league’s ABS website for an in-depth look at how technology is affecting teams and players this year. Front and center are the statistics which show that, currently, 53% of calls are rejected by the ABS challenge this time of the season.
Although that suggests that the players are not making calls, the players are only asking for reviews in uncertain situations — and anyone who has seen an ABS result knows how these songs often don’t catch the edge of the strike zone.
MLB’s Baseball Savant site tracks every ABS challenge made.
Does fast data ruin the spirit of the game?
What about baseball broadcasters who see this as technological interference in a game that relies on the eyes and judgment of skilled players and umpires? I’d expect fans who think ABS undermines the heart of the game to push back hard against more acceptance of Moneyball-style data over culture.
T-Mobile’s Amy Azzi, vice president of sports, entertainment and hospitality, said emotions are their biggest fear. But MLB shared statistics with T-Mobile showing that 91% of respondents said ABS improved the overall game, and 76% said it improved the experience of the game.
“This stadium lights up when the phone rings, or when there is a crowd,” said Azzi.
Each team gets two ABS challenges during the game. If the challenge is rejected, the party that made it loses one of their challenges. If approved, the team saves the challenge and can use it again later. So if a team challenges two calls thinking they were strikes, and the ABS system confirms they were strikes, the team can still make more challenges until they lose them.
ABS also adds another strategic element to the game. Jerry Dipito, president of baseball operations for the Mariners, said the team is learning that patience is important.
“We always value patience and consideration in our players,” Dipito said, noting that’s even more important today with this technology option. “We need to flip the switch at the right moment in the ABS challenge to affect the outcome of the game.”
Even with precision ABS technology, it has not eliminated the human factor. Dipito gave an example of the game they played against the Minnesota Twins, which he said were aggressive using ABS challenges. They would run out of challenges in the sixth inning, and when it came to the ninth, Seattle threw two pitches that would have been identified as balls if there had been a challenge.
However, Mariners pitcher Cal Raleigh planned the pitch as a strike, something he has been good at, Dipito noted.
“[Raleigh] he won the game in our favor because he made it look like a strike,” he said.
Although the Mariners ended up losing the first game in May 7-to-6, it was still fun to watch in person, with five home runs, four ABS calls and a near-successful comeback by the home team. At the end of the night, without all the data and statistics, it’s still a valuable experience.
