The idea behind ABS, the automated balls and strikes system that officially goes into play in tonight’s season opener between the Yankees and Giants, got its start back in 1939.
Batters and umpires have been at odds with strike zone calls almost from the very first pitch of the very first game in 1880.
In 1939, Popular Science magazine proposed an electrical umpire, where horizontal and vertical light beams forming a strike zone could determine where the pitch ended up.
It would have required installing a huge system of projectors and lights on the field that would have been obtrusive and maybe even a bit dangerous.
In the 1950s, pioneering general manager Branch Rickey of the Dodgers tried a system in spring training using mirrors and lenses to get calls right. That didn’t stick, maybe because mirrors tend to reflect blinding sunlight into players’ eyes.
That eventually gave birth to Questec in 2001, PITCHfx in 2008, and Statcast in 2015, in a constant effort to get it right.
What legendary manager Casey Stengel wished for back in the 1960s when he noted “they use radar and electronics for everything else, I don’t know why it can’t it be done in baseball” has come to fruition.
Of course, nothing can be done without overthinking it. So, instead of having ABS just do its job and call pitches, the home plate ump will still make the calls, and teams get just two challenges per game. If they are right on a certain challenge, they retain that challenge.
It’s probably a good thing that Angel Hernandez retired. He was universally recognized as the most incapable umpire in history. Image how long games would go if every single pitch thrown was challenged, reviewed, then overturned. Teams would have endless challenges to correct his depthless incompetence. The irony is, he won’t have the benefit of being corrected by the system developed because of him. Instead of ABS, maybe we should call it AHS: the Angel Hernandez System.
The 2026 season starts today. Our robot overlords will be watching.
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NO RANGERS GAME TODAY.