The Korea Baseball Softball Association (KBSA) introduces robot referees. The automatic ball strike system (robot referee) will be applied from the round of 16 of the 2023 Shinsegae E-Mart Cup National High School Baseball Championship.
KBSA said, “With the introduction of this robot referee, we hope to prevent irregularities in the entrance exam, the four major evils in sports, and minimize conflicts and controversies caused by unfair referee decisions.” KBSA held a demonstration at Daejeon Hanwha Life Eagles Park on the 28th of last month (March) to verify the performance and reliability of robot referees.
Strike zones were set for field leaders and KBSA referees at the time, and opinions were collected for smooth system introduction. The robot referee strike standard is that a pitched ball must pass through both the front strike zone in front of the home plate and the back strike zone behind the home plate to be judged as a strike.
According to the results of the demonstration, KBSA took into account the average height of high school players, and the left and right width was about one ball wider than the robot referee’s strike zone set in the KBO Futures (second team) league. The strike zone has been slightly lowered.
It also reflected the ball trajectory of sidearm pitchers. The strike zone behind home plate will be about half a ball wider than the front.
The robot referee will be implemented from the 3rd, when the round of 16 of the 2023 Shinsegae E-Mart Cup National High School Baseball Championship will be held. On the first day of introduction, a trial run is conducted first to minimize trial and error.
During the test operation, the referee judges the ball strike, and the coaches of both teams are given an opportunity to request a review of the ball strike decision up to three times through the referee.
From the second day of the Round of 16 match, robot referees will be introduced. The robot referee’s decision is recognized as the final decision, and in accordance with the official baseball rules, no objection can be raised against the ball strike decision.
If the game cannot be played due to an error by the robot referee, recovery is attempted on the spot, and if there is a delay of more than 30 minutes, the referee will judge the ball or strike.
Regarding the introduction of robot referees,토토사이트 KBSA President Lee Jong-hun said, “I think it is the association’s role to create an environment in which high school teams can produce the best performance under the same conditions as fair referee decisions.” We expect positive effects such as minimizing controversy, preventing irregularities in entrance exams and match-fixing, and improving the performance of players.”