What do you get when you combine former MLB outfielder Eric Byrnes, three high-tech cameras and an IFB earpiece?
To hear some tell it, you get the future of umpiring.
In June, during an independent league game between the San Rafael Pacifics and Pittsburg Diamonds, Byrnes crouched behind the plate in full umpire gear. He made the calls for the fans' benefit, in typically gregarious fashion. The balls and strikes, however, were fed to him using PITCHf/x data.
For one night at least, the dream of an automated strike zone was realized.
This was actually the second time the Pacifics—an unaffiliated team based out of Marin County, California, just north of the Golden Gate Bridge—had let PITCHf/x take the reins in a game.