제 23 호 Beyond the Strike Zone: Pros and Cons of ABS in Baseball
Kicker: Science
Beyond the Strike Zone:
Pros and Cons of ABS in Baseball
by Sumin Lee , Cub-Reporter
Often referred to as ABS (Automatic Ball-Strike System) is a pitch tracking system that automatically judges strikes and balls by using cameras or radars and artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithm technology to deliver them to the referee. It is also used as a test format in Major League Baseball, but the KBO(Korea Baseball League) officially adopts the technology and actively uses it for the operation of the game. Prior to the introduction of the ABS system, strikes and balls were judged only by the referee and even if the ball reached the same position, the decision was different every time. Only a specific baseball batter was scapegoated or in some cases, a certain club suffered losses due to the referee's unfair judgment. With these problems continuing and technology continuing to develop, ABS technology has emerged, but despite the fact that it is a sophisticated system, it is not always possible to make perfect judgments. Therefore there are many complaints from players and various opinions from baseball fans about the introduction of the technology in the 2024 Korean Baseball League. How about your opinion? We need to think about technology that is also affecting sports.
What Is the Strike Zone And ABS?
Before we think about this, we need to understand some of baseball's rules. The strike zone which is most problematic in the ABS system right now is a hypothetical three-dimensional space, not a plane above the home plate in front of the batter and pitcher. In fact, strike zones did not appear long ago. Strike zones did not exist in baseball games until the mid-1800s, and pitchers continued pitching until the batter hit the ball. Under these circumstances, a rule called strikeout was introduced by Alexander Cartwright, the founder of modern baseball, but only if the batter swung and missed, and the game time was raised to be indefinitely extended. As a result, the emergence of a similar method to the present was introduced in 1887. Since humans have judged with their eyes how the ball passed through this zone for a long time in the past, the strike zones determined by the referee and by the game situation became different, leading to frequent objections to the decision.
2024 New Rules of Korean Professional Baseball League https://www.koreabaseball.com/Kbo/League/GameManage2024.aspx
In the context of constantly experiencing these problems, the first element of integrated technology emerged in baseball when technology developed and began to affect sports. It was the ABS, automatic ball-strike system. Looking at the principles of the automatic pitching judgment system, the laser technology of cameras on the first baseman, third baseman and central electronic display panels is used to calculate coordinate values in the pitching tracking program to determine strikes and balls. Also, judgements are wirelessly communicated to referees through radios and earphones through other audio lines on the field. In this process, an automated system consisting of AI and machine learning algorithms, which are constantly rising, is actively used to determine the outcome of baseball games. This technology sets the middle and end surfaces of the strike zone, which are three-dimensional spaces on the home plate, and determines a strike if both sides of the ball pass, and determines a ball if only one side passes. Of course, these techniques were not perfect from the beginning, but the automatic pitching judgment system introduced in Korea after trial and error, such as long judgment time, large-fall breaking balls, and one-bound ball errors, recorded a 99.9% success rate in the demonstration game and reduced the time it took to make a decision, which greatly affected the running time of baseball games.
Method Of Robot Judgement Technology https://www.yna.co.kr/view/AKR20200804114600007
The Rising Problem of the ABS
Referees are talking about the result of ABS https://imnews.imbc.com/replay/2024/nw1400/article/6589423_36493.html
Just as all technologies that help the world have two sides, the automatic pitching judgment system could not avoid it. Of course, it is true that it is a great help in the management of the game, but the problem raised in the 2024 Korea Baseball regular season games is that the strike zone height ratio is adjusted according to the player's height, resulting in the batter being adversely affected depending on the batting form. The automatic pitching judgment system operates a strike zone by setting the player's height ratio and setting the top/bottom of the zone.According to the KBO operating standards in 2024, the top end is 56.35% of the height from the ground, and the bottom end is 27.64%.
Second, the competitiveness of international competitions could deteriorate. As South Korea is the only country in the world that officially uses ABS among baseball leagues, organizers of world games can reduce the frequency of appointing Korean referees as chief referees, and the catcher's framing technology, which is a technology that tricks referees by making them look like strikes by technically catching balls slightly out of the strike zone with his glove, does not affect in front of computers, so catcher's skills are not specifically required. However, in countries other than South Korea, which is the only country that uses ABS, it can negatively affect the improvement of Korean catchers' capabilities in a situation where the catcher's ability is constantly being considered important. It also raises the issue of ease of manipulation. As it uses electronic communication technology, the system can be hacked the system or buy managers, making it easy to manipulate. If the technology is abused in this way, the automatic pitching judgement system could lose credibility.
When these technologies, which were introduced after predicting various situations, were used in practice, problems that were unexpected emerged. In a South Korean professional baseball game that took place on July 24, the referee declared a strike after making his own judgment that the machine failed to track the ball, claiming that the judgment was not heard by earphones. However, there is also an ABS tablet in the dugout that allows users to see the ABS decision in real time, and although the opposing team protested, claiming it was a ball, it is an unfortunate case that cannot be corrected.
What do you think about the advancement of technology that has greatly affected sports? Although our lives have changed in a good way due to the development of various technologies, we sometimes lose our jobs, have our privacy violated, and lose our feelings and thoughts that can only be gained without technology. The automatic pitching judgement system introduced for a good purpose in Korean professional baseball is highly praised, but we need to rethink and think about the role of technology rather than being eaten up by technology based only on the idea that it is convenient.
Sources:
https://v.daum.net/v/q9Q8iG8CmM
https://terms.naver.com/entry.naver?docId=1230260&cid=40942&categoryId=32050
https://www.chosun.com/sports/baseball/2024/03/14/RKJ7OHTAJBTYYCWKOOHRSW4JAU/
https://www.yna.co.kr/view/AKR20200804114600007
http://www.thesportstimes.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=353008
https://www-dbpia-co-kr.libproxy.smu.ac.kr/pdf/pdfView.do?nodeId=NODE11841202
