The robot referee, which was first introduced at Shinsegae E-Mart, the first high school baseball tournament, is making a successful soft landing, albeit with trial and error.
The Korea Baseball Softball Association (hereinafter referred to as the association) will implement the ‘robot referee’, which drew praise from the majority of leaders at the 2023 Shinsegae E-Mart Cup National High School Baseball Championship, from the beginning at the next national high school baseball tournament, Golden Lion. In addition, robot referees will be introduced in all national competitions except for the weekend league. At least, it is so if it is a tournament held at Mokdong Baseball Stadium.
The association introduced robot referees to the Shinsegae E-Mart Cup, the first national high school baseball tournament this year, to prevent irregularities in the entrance examination by increasing fairness and transparency. The biggest reason is to block entrance exam corruption. The national high school baseball tournament is directly related to the entrance exams of players. Because you have to take a college entrance exam with records. Dissatisfaction erupted in every game, and suspicions of financial collusion constantly flowed out. 먹튀검증
In response, the Korea Baseball Softball Association pulled out a knife. It was decided to introduce a robot referee starting this year. The camera installed in the baseball field grasps the trajectory of the ball and the point of impact in real time to determine a strike-ball. High school baseball leaders mainly praised the robot referee system that declared it as it is.
A high school baseball coach said, “Isn’t everyone on the same condition? If so, that’s fine,” he said. Another director said, “It was more accurate than I expected.”
In the Shinsegae E-Mart Cup tournament, the strike zone was set about one ball wider on the left and right than the strike zone for robot referees in the Futures League, the second division of professional baseball, and a little lower in height, considering the height of high school players.
Of course, there are also downsides. During the game, there were quite a few cases where the referee and the robot referee had conflicting decisions. Here, the catcher’s framing, which is an important part of baseball, has become completely useless. Also, it is said that it is advantageous for pitchers who throw curveballs. On the curve that falls from a high place to a low place, it is the reaction of the field that strikes are often declared even with a ball with a bounce.
Accordingly, the association plans to adjust the strike zone from the Golden Lion tournament by reflecting the opinions of the field. We also accept the opinion of field coaches that taller-than-average players find it difficult to hit low balls that are judged as strikes. The association announced that it plans to raise the lower strike zone slightly upward.
All high school baseball tournaments are held at Mokdong Baseball Stadium. Robot referees cannot be used anywhere other than Mokdong Baseball Stadium. This is because the infrastructure is not yet in place. Therefore, robot referees are not assigned to weekend leagues, and robot referees are applied only to national competitions.
This year’s national high school baseball tournament (the so-called national tournament) is the Golden Lion (May 13-29) and the Blue Dragon (July 8-24). The Presidential Cup (July 30-August 12) and the Phoenix Tournament (August 18-September 4) remain, and robot referees will be assigned to all games from the preliminaries to the finals.
Leave a Reply