ROUND ROCK, Texas — For baseball fans, the future is now.
Starting at Friday night's game against the El Paso Chihuahuas, the Round Rock Express will use something called the "Hawkeye System." The system is made up of eight cameras strategically placed in Dell Diamond that analyze everything — most notably, telling the umpire immediately via earpiece if each pitch is a ball or a strike.
"So, it's not like [a] Johnny 5 robot is back there calling balls and strikes. You still need a physical umpire for foul tips, for safe/out plays and all that stuff too," said Tim Jackson, general manager for the Round Rock Express. "It's kind of a misnomer to call it a 'roboump,' though we've called it that. It's really a camera system that helps do that."
The so-called "roboump" is really a radar device that looks a bit like a TV screen.
The technology has already been used in games like the Atlantic League All-Star Minor League game in 2019. And it appears to be the future of baseball because other minor league teams are already using it.