A few years ago, Fred DeJesus from Brooklyn, New York became the first umpire in a minor league baseball game to use something called the Automated Ball-Strike System (ABS), often referred to as the 'robo-umpire'. Instead of making any judgments himself about a strike”, DeJesus had decisions fed to him through an earpiece, connected to a modified missile-tracking system. The contraption looked like a large black pizza box with one glowing green eye; it was mounted above the press stand.

几年前，来自纽约布鲁克林的弗雷德·德赫苏斯成为小联盟棒球比赛中第一个使用"自动好球判定系统"(ABS)的裁判员，该系统常被称为"机器人裁判"。不再自行判断好球*，德赫苏斯而是通过耳机接收判定结果，这个耳机和一个改良导弹追踪系统相连接。这个装置看起来像个带有绿色发光孔的大型黑色披萨盒，它被安装在记者席上方。

Major League Baseball (MLB), who had commissioned the system, wanted human umpires to announce the calls, just as they would have done in the past. When the first pitch came in, a recorded voice told DeJesus it was a strike. Previously, calling a strike was a judgment call on the part of the umpire. Even if the batter does not hit the ball, a pitch that passes through the 'strike zone (an imaginary zone about seventeen inches wide, stretching from the batter's knees to the middle of his chest) is considered a strike. During that first game, when DeJesus announced calls, there was no heckling and no shouted disagreement. Nobody said a word.

委托开发该系统的美国职业棒球大联盟(MLB)希望由真人裁判来宣布判定结果，一如过去一样。当第一个投球来临时，录音通知德赫苏斯这是个好球。在过去，好球判定完全依靠裁判的个人判断。即使击球手没有击中球，只要投球通过"好球区"(一个假想的区域，约17英寸宽，从击球手膝盖延伸至胸部中央)就被看做为好球。在那第一场比赛中，当德赫苏斯宣布判定时，现场既没有起哄也没有抗议声。无人说话。

For a hundred and fifty years or so, the strike zone has been the game's animating force-countless arguments between a team's manager and the umpire have taken place over its boundaries and whether a ball had crossed through it. The rules of play have evolved in various stages. Today, everyone knows that you may scream your disagreement in an umpire's face, but you must never shout personal abuse at them or touch them. That's a no-no. When the robo-umpires came, however, the arguments stopped.

大约150年来，好球区一直是棒球比赛的争议焦点--球队经理与裁判之间围绕好球区边界及投球是否通过的争论不计其数。比赛规则经历了多个阶段的演变。如今所有人都知道，你可以当面表达异议，但绝不能对裁判进行人身攻击或肢体接触，这是绝对禁忌。然而随着机器人裁判的出现，这些争论都消失了。

During the first robo-umpire season, players complained about some strange calls. In response, MLB decided to tweak the dimensions of the zone, and the following year the consensus was that ABS is profoundly consistent. MLB says the device is near-perfect, precise to within fractions of an inch. “It'll reduce controversy in the game, and be good for the game,” says Rob Manfred, who is Commissioner for MLB. But the question is whether controversy is worth reducing, or whether it is the sign of a human hand.

在首个机器人裁判赛季中，球员们对一些异常判决提出了异议。作为回应，MLB决定调整球区的尺寸并且在第二年业界普遍认可ABS系统具有高度一致性。MLB表示该设备几乎完美，误差精确到英寸之内。"这将减少比赛争议，对比赛有利，"MLB总裁罗伯·曼弗雷德表示。但核心问题在于:争议是否要被削减或者说争议本身正是人性化裁决的标志。

A human, at least, yells back. When I spoke with Frank Viola, a coach for a North Carolina team, he said that ABS works as designed, but that it was also unforgiving and pedantic, almost legalistic. “Manfred is a lawyer,” Viola noted. Some pitchers have complained that, compared with a human's, the robot's strike zone seems too precise. Viola was once a major-league player himself. When he was pitching, he explained, umpires rewarded skill. “Throw it where you aimed, and it would be a strike, even if it was an inch or two outside. There was a dialogue between pitcher and umpire.”

至少人类裁判会与球员争辩。北卡罗来纳某球队教练弗兰克·维奥拉曾表示，ABS系统虽按设计运行，但是也非常严苛和死板，像法律条文一般。"曼弗雷德是律师，"维奥拉指出。部分投手抱怨相比人类裁判，机器判定的好球区看上去太精确了。维奥拉是前大联盟球员，他解释说当投球的时候，传统裁判会奖励技术性投球。"只要投到预定位置，即使偏差一两英寸也会被判定为好球。投手与裁判之间存在着一种默契。

The executive tasked with running the experiment for MLB is Morgan Sword, who's in charge of baseball operations. According to Sword, ABS was part of a larger project to make baseball more exciting since executives are terrified of losing younger fans, as has been the case with horse racing and boxing. He explains how they began the process by asking fans what version of baseball they found most exciting. The results showed that everyone wanted more action: more hits, more defense, more baserunning. This type of baseball essentially hasn't existed since the 1960s, when the hundred-mile-an-hour fastball, which is difficult to hit and control, entered the game. It flattened the game into strikeouts, walks, and home runs a type of play lacking much action.

负责MLB本次试验的主管是摩根·斯沃德，他负责本次的棒球运行。他说ABS系统是使棒球变得更有趣这一计划的重要部分，因为高管们担心会像赛马和拳击那样失去年轻观众。他还解释了他们是如何调查球迷认为的最精彩的棒球形式。结果显示大家渴望更多对抗:更多安打、更多防守、更多跑垒。这种比赛风格自1960年代就逐渐消失，当时时速百英里的快速球(很难击打和控制)开始流行。它使比赛简化为三振、保送和本垒打，缺乏精彩对抗。

Sword's team brainstormed potential fixes. Any rule that existed, they talked about changing-from changing the bats to changing the geometry of the field. But while all of these were ruled out as potential fixes, ABS was seen as a perfect vehicle for change. According to Sword, once you get the technology right, you can load any strike zone you want into the system. “It might be a triangle, or a blob, or something shaped like Texas. Over time, as baseball evolves, ABS can allow the zone to change with it.”

斯沃德的团队曾考虑各种可能的解决办法。从存在的规则开始，他们就考虑改变--从球棒到场地几何结构的调整。虽然多数方案被否决，ABS系统被视为最佳改革工具。斯沃德表示，只要技术正确，你可以加载任意的好球区到系统中。:"可能是三角形、不规则图形，甚至德州形状。随着棒球运动发展，ABS能让好球区同步改变。

“In the past twenty years, sports have moved away from judgment calls. Soccer has Video Assistant Referees (for offside decisions, for example). Tennis has Hawk-Eye da chon 1 muc (for line calls, for example). For almost a decade, baseball has used instant replay on the base paths. This is widely liked, even if the precision can sometimes cause problems. But these applications deal with something physical: bases, lines, goals. The boundaries of action are precise, delineated like the keys of a piano. This is not the case with ABS and the strike zone. Historically, a certain discretion has been appreciated.”

过去二十年间，体育赛事逐渐减少人为判罚。足球引进了视频助理裁判VAR，用于越位等判罚。网球采用了鹰眼系统，用于界内球判定。近十年来，棒球也在垒道判罚中采用了即时回放技术，尽管精确性有时会引发争议，但广受欢迎。然而，这些技术可以判定的是具象的物理边界垒包、边线、球门线。它们的界限如同钢琴琴键般清晰可辨。但自动好球判定系统(ABS)与好球区的界定却并非如此。历史上，裁判的主观裁量权一直被认可。

I decided to email Alva Noë, a professor at Berkeley University and a baseball fan, for his opinion. “Hardly a day goes by that I don't wake up and run through the reasons that this [robo-umpires] is such a terrible idea,” he replied. He later told me, “This is part of a movement to use algorithms to take the hard choices of living out of life.” Perhaps he's right. We watch baseball to kill time, not to maximize it. Some players I have met take a dissenting stance toward the robots too, believing that accuracy is not the answer. According to Joe Russo, who plays for a New Jersey team, “With technology, people just want everything to be perfect. That's not reality. I think perfect would be weird. Your teams are always winning, work is always just great, there's always money in your pocket, your car never breaks down. What is there to talk about?”

我决定发邮件向加州大学伯克利分校教授、棒球迷阿尔瓦·诺埃请教。他回复道:“我几乎每天醒来都会思考，为什么这是个如此糟糕的主意。“他进一步解释:“这属于一种用算法替代生活艰难选择的行动。“或许他是对的。我们观看棒球是为了消磨时光，而非追求效率最大化。我遇到的一些球员也对机器人裁判持反对态度，认为准确度并不是答案。据新泽西队球员乔·鲁索所言:“有了科技，人们希望每件事都是完美的，但那不是现实。我认为完美会很奇怪?你的队伍永远在赢工作永远顺利，口袋永远有钱，车子永不抛锚。这样的生活还有什么乐趣?"

*strike: a strike is when the batter swings at a ball and misses or when the batter does not swing at a ball that passes through the strike zone.

好球（Strike）：当击球员挥棒击球未中，或未挥棒但球穿过好球区时，即记为一记好球。