Strike Three! Or Was It?

Baseball, more than any other sport, is castigated for its refusal to incorporate the official review process into the game. Defendants of the stance cite human error as a necessary component of the game, making the judgment of the umpires as important as every pitch thrown by the pitcher. One bad pitch, or one blown call, has the capacity to alter the course of a game, as we’ve all seen this season.

That being said, what is the justification for implementing a pitch tracker on most television broadcasts of baseball games, especially now that the playoffs have begun? The pitch tracker does nothing, only highlighting the inaccuracy and poor judgment of the umpire behind home plate. It has become the most frustrating and irritating aspect of watching a baseball game. Pitch after pitch is seemingly called wrong. Balls becomes strikes and strikes become balls, but there's nothing anyone sitting at home can do about it. 

It’s possible that the pitch tracker isn’t very accurate and the seemingly blown calls aren’t blown at all. If that is the case, again, what is the point of the pitch track feature? If it can’t be trusted, get it off the screen. Nobody is interested in seeing pitch-by-pitch analysis if the best that can be said about it is it’s in the “ballpark” as far as accuracy goes.

If MLB doesn’t want to employ official review techniques, then broadcasts of baseball games shouldn’t promote review features that can’t be legitimized. The pitch tracker is a waste of space on the sports fan’s HD display and should be done away with to prevent further frustration and outrage. The most that can be said about the pitch tracker is that it accentuates the amount of human error that really does go into calling a baseball game.