Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred aroused my Luddite inclinations recently when he announced he supports using robots to call balls and strikes beginning with the 2024 season. He cited the need to speed up the game. League data suggest that the change could shorten games by nine minutes.
I’m in my 80s. I see all change as a threat. The job of us old-timers is to urge caution to those who believe they have a clear view of the future. Baseball is timelessly interesting because it mostly remains the same game it was 100 years ago. It is like an old pair of slippers. It’s also still the most difficult game to play because it is a game of failure.
