The Korea Baseball Softball Association (KBSA) operates an automatic ball/strike judgment (robot referee) by applying the ‘reset strike zone’ at the Golden Lion National High School Baseball Championship, which opens on the 14th.
The association said, “Reflecting the voices of the field about the low ball and the left and right strike zones, we reset the strike zone through a process of supplementation and verification in high school baseball weekend league games.”
The Korea Baseball Softball Association introduced robot referees for the first time in the Shinsegae E-Mart Cup round of 16 match that ended last month in order to prevent irregularities in the entrance exam by enhancing fairness and transparency.
A camera installed in the baseball field identifies the trajectory of the pitch and judges the strike and the ball. After that, the ball is delivered to the referee (chief referee) through the receiver and earphones.
After the robot referee was introduced, the first tournament was completed without major problems, but voices of supplementation were also raised in the field.
The robot referee judges a strike only when the ball passes both the front strike zone in front of home plate and the back strike zone behind home plate. There were a few cases where a curve with a large drop was caught at a position so low that the catcher’s mitt almost touched the ground, and was declared a strike. When a strike was declared by passing through the upper front strike zone and the lower strike zone at the back, complaints about the judgment came out. Furthermore, considering the height of high school players, the strike zone for the E-Mart Cup tournament is about one ball wider on the left and right than the strike zone for the Futures League robot referee, and the height is set slightly lower.
At the scene, they demanded more perfection, saying, “High school player grades are related to entrance exams. If the batting average is low, it can be hindered.”
KBSA also recognized this voice in the field. An official from the association said, “There are voices of regret about low balls and curved balls, but there is no big problem because they are consistent.”
The association plans to refine the strike zone more precisely through correction work and operate it in the Golden Lion tournament.
Provided by the Korea Baseball Softball Association
The association said, “KBSA referees attended and applied various strike zone setting plans to high school baseball weekend league games.” We tried to reduce the discrepancy in the strike judgment for low balls by taking measures to make it possible.”스포츠토토
The upper line of the strike zone was 101.31cm in E-Mart Bae, but it was raised by 104.92cm in Golden Lion. The bottom line also increased from 42.88cm to 46.49cm.
In addition, the association supplemented the judgment for falling breaking balls by moving the judgment surface at the back to the catcher in consideration of the technical situation in which a strike is judged only when both the front and back sides of the home plate pass through the zone. 64.87cm → 57.64cm, back 72.1cm → 64.86cm) was reduced, and the direct pitching that filled the inside and outside was reflected in the strike zone.”
Provided by the Korea Baseball Softball Association
The association said, “We plan to listen to the voices of the field and the opinions of the KBSA referees and reflect them in order to ensure smooth system settlement and maximize positive effects.”