Lindsay plays beep2bleep’s Umpire Simulator game on Kongregate while telling the story of former American League Umpire Coordinator Phil Janssen, US Air Force veteran Dr. Grant E Secrist, and the Situational Awareness Training System (SATS), an umpire training tool rejected by MLB in favor of QuesTec and related television broadcast displays such as FoxTrax and K-Zone. Umpires could have had a virtual reality tool similar to Umpire Simulator, but because MLB said no, we’ll never know what could have been. Think about that the next time you disagree with a ball or strike call.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CloseCallSports
Twitter: https://twitter.com/CloseCallSports
Discord: https://discord.gg/eFXWr7yHWM
In-depth article about the Janssen/Secrest SATS story and how QuesTec won over MLB Commission Bud Selig and other executives: https://www.closecallsports.com/2019/05/mlb-fight-with-hernandez-goes-back-20.html
Play the Umpire Simulator game on Kongregate: https://www.kongregate.com/games/beep2bleep/umpire-simulator
source
I like the idea Linds, and I did enjoy listening but it seems the framerate you are recording at is only capturing maybe 4-5 frames of the pitch and it is entirely impossible to tell where the pitch is crossing the plate for us. Glad you did this though, I'm trying the game out for myself!
How surprising, a good solution can drastically improve game calling and the league decides not to use it so they can get better entertainment value.
there's a way better version on mobile called JUDGE i think it's Japanese. fantastic little game
When I saw this video I got so excited to download this, and then I saw the frame rate and the lack of realism, as well as the incorrect calls. Sheesh this game is bad, but the idea is amazing!
Bad stuff!
There is an app on the Quest 2 for vr that is pretty decent
This is in VR too, it's fun and definitely better that way. I've also found the zone to be better in the VR version on top of better frame rate.
No catcher in the umpire's eye line?
2D on screen here not realistic to real 3D either.
Tbf it is a kongragate game, not known for being consistent.
MLB is not doing themselves any favors. "WhY iS mY bUsInEsS fAiLiNg???"
God we hate these rich old farts.
The scaling on the plate and everything is kind of off on this game honestly
I was in a F-16 sim a few times. The idea was to give us training to help us brief/train the pilots better. It was pretty cool.
That simulator is horrendous
Dear god the frame rate in that game is trash. What is the fps on that – 20? Games these days can run up to 120 fps, so trying to call pitches with a low frame rate is really bad since I believe the average human eye sees at around 60 fps, and losing frames means you lose track of where the ball is going since it’s not being animated properly.
You should check out winreality for the quest. It’s not designed for umpires but it accomplishes the same thing. It’s designed as a virtual batting cage, but there’s pitch location drills.
We all need to call WinReality and ask them to modify their hitting tech to get us an Ump Module. They've told me if they have enough interest they'd do it.
with all of the hawkeye (statcast) data now, it would be very possible to let umpires train for specific batters and pitchers with incredible precision. you could simulate the pitcher's entire repertoire. you could even have a catcher setting up and framing pitches in the same way as that day's catcher.
some mlb teams use very similar tech for vr training for players so they can see the spin and break of the pitches they are likely to face that day. my understanding is that the tech isnt quite there yet for batting practice, but since the umpire is relatively stationary calling balls and strikes, vr would work very well.
This frame rate is complete bullshit, the idea and everything you’re talking about is great but like how can that game in that state legitimate grade anyone?
Keep digging on this story. Where else can we get this software? and can we as umpires train to get better here?
😅😅
Oh my! What a kick that was. LOL. Had no idea this was a thing.