. . . that call to end the game last night was a total disgrace.

To have a Dominican hitter, Geraldo Perdomo, fight one of the best relievers in baseball, Mason Miller, who throws 102 mph and has been untouchable all tournament, and actually win the battle and get punched out anyway is crazy.

But such is life with human umpires.

Hitting depends, in part, on making instant, minute judgments about what’s a ball and what’s a strike; it requires incredible discipline and skill. To throw on top of this innate difficulty the randomness of a human umpire who might blow the call is indefensible and stupid — e.g., earlier in the count, Perdomo took a pitch that was called a ball that was in a similar spot to what was subsequently called a strike to eliminate the Dominican Republic.

For more than a hundred years, there’s been no alternative to this flawed system, but now a fully automated strike zone is possible and, for anyone who loves baseball, should be imperative. The challenge system, which couldn’t be adopted in the WBC for logistical reasons, is a tentative, unnecessary half-step toward fully automated calls, which is the natural, inevitable end state.

Geraldo Perdomo and Mason Miller were having a great, high-stakes battle. The outcome shouldn’t have been determined by the flawed judgment of an unreliable eyewitness.

© National Review