Joe Torre: “I like the game staying human. Since we put in replay everyone expects to get everything perfect and I don’t think our game is that way. To me it’s an imperfect game. I would hate to see us try to be too perfect… I don’t see the robotic strike zone happening.”
Major League Baseball’s chief baseball officer Joe Torre joined The Dan Patrick Show on Wednesday to talk about the alarming movement of robotic umpires in the lower professional levels, as a computer strike zone was used for the first time in baseball history on July 11th in the MLB-owned Atlantic League.
The move was an uncanny introduction for many baseball purists, as human umpires calling balls and strikes have practically been the most integral part of the game since the sport was invented in the late 1800’s.
However Torre, who has been a high ranking executive in the MLB front office since 2011, told Dan Patrick that he doesn’t see a robotic strike zone ever coming to the big leagues, saying baseball isn’t supposed to be a ‘perfect’ sport.
Torre, of course, managed the New York Yankees from 1996 to 2007, and led one of the greatest dynasties in baseball history, winning four World Series in 1996, 1998, 1999, and 2000.