Embracing the human element of sports is a euphemism for accepting officiating mistakes, misjudgments, and miscues as an unavoidable, baked-in, and quirky part of the sports experience. However, MLB and the NFL aim to eliminate imperfections from crucial aspects of their games. Is a technological takeover of judgment calls automatically a good thing?
Just look at Major League Baseball’s spring training and an upcoming audible from the National Football League and you’ll see the rise of the machines.
As technology infiltrates, overtakes, and promises to improve every aspect of our lives, the sports world is not immune.
We have the technology to make sports adjudication by the on-field arbiters (umpires, officials, referees) fairer and more accurate. Technologies being tested and implemented are the sports officiating equivalent of AI. For some, that stands for absolute improvement.
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The automatic ball-strike system (ABS) in baseball to challenge calls and the NFL’s proposal for virtual mapping and measuring for first downs aren’t just the future. They’re here. (A little late for Josh Allen and the Bills, who were denied a key first down in their AFC Championship loss to the Chiefs on the questionable low-tech, guesswork of human beings.)
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ABS, which allows the pitcher, batter, or catcher to challenge a home-plate umpire’s ball-strike decision, has been used in the minor leagues in some form for more than five seasons. It’s on track for regular-season MLB use as early as 2026. The NFL plans to implement virtual first-down measurements for the 2025 season.
We no longer have to settle for romanticizing human error. Believing that a strike zone is subjective like poetry, or that whether a player made the line to gain in the NFL to keep a drive alive is an inexact science, like putting together a music playlist.
But will something be lost in the process of gaining precision?
We have the technology to make the calls better. Just as players, strategies, and philosophies have evolved across sports in the name of greater efficiency and effectiveness, the same is happening with officiating.
No system is foolproof, but the game plan is to make human error in key aspects of officiating obsolete, like it or not.
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Christopher L. Gasper is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at christopher.gasper@globe.com. Follow him @cgasper and on Instagram @cgaspersports.