MLB doubles camera angles for video reviews of umpires - Sportsnet.ca | Canada News Media
Connect with us

Sports

MLB doubles camera angles for video reviews of umpires – Sportsnet.ca

Published

 on


NEW YORK — Taking a chance to review instant replay, Major League Baseball doubled the isolated cameras available for video reviews to 24 this year.

MLB also arranged for high-frame rate cameras to stream directly to the new replay operations centre and ballpark video rooms, and for MLB-controlled 4K cameras with zoom lenses to be installed at high locations behind home plate.

A new replay hub about twice the size of the old one was constructed as part of the move of Major League Baseball and MLB Advanced Media to a combined office space in Manhattan, across the street from Radio City Music Hall.

“We think that the product of all these items is going to result in a much more rapid review process, so that we’ll be getting video available much more quickly to the umpires, who will be making decision more quickly,” Chris Marinak, MLB executive vice-president of strategy, technology and innovation, said Monday. “The same will be true of the replay personnel in the ballpark, who are helping their manager make a decision on whether to challenge.”

Each manager will have 20 seconds to decide whether to ask for a video review of a call subject to a challenge, down from 30.

MLB’s pandemic-delayed season starts Thursday with the New York Yankees at the World Series champion Washington Nationals.

MLB started widespread video review in 2014 after years of embarrassing calls, such as the blown call by first base umpire Jim Joyce that denied Detroit’s Armando Galarraga what should have been the final of out a perfect game.

There were 1,275 reviews during the 2019 regular season, including 1,051 requested by managers that averaged 1 minute, 46 seconds. Among those calls, 603 (47.3 were confirmed, 352 (27.6 were for record keeping.

Clear plastic barriers have been installed, and additional conference rooms will be used to enable social distancing. If the Toronto Blue Jays play home games at a non-regular season MLB facility, cameras for video review would be installed.

Also debuting this week is a second-generation Statcast system that shifts from TrackMan and Doppler radar to Hawk-Eye and an array of 12 cameras whose data will be stored on Google Cloud to create graphics for scoreboards and broadcasts. Five of the cameras are targeted for pitch tracking, four behind the plate and one in centre field, and seven are used to track players. Each camera is 4K resolution and typically tracks at a rate of 100 frames per second, though they can be sped to as fast as 500 frames per second.

“We’re trying to set a foundation here with this new deployment that is a foundation that we can innovate on for the next five years as technology continues to progress,” said Jason Gaedtke, MLB’s chief technology officer.

MLB said the error margin, which had averaged mostly 1-2 inches in 2016, is expected to drop to 0.1 inches this season. The system is designed to eliminate previous blind spots on high popups and in outfield corners. Error margins on fielder movements are expected to drop from 3 feet to less than one foot.

TrackMan took over pitch velocity tracking from PITCHf/x in 2017.

“We would argue that it’s more accurate than what you’ve seen in the past,” MLB executive vice-president of strategy, technology and innovation Chris Marinak said. He added it “mirrors historical data at closely as possible.”

Gaedtke said extensive testing was employed to avoid changes to velocities that some claimed resulted from the 2017 switch.

To enforce social distancing, group viewing of in-game videos by players has been prohibited and each team is being given 15 iPads for player use that will be wiped clean after each game. The iPads have software the prohibits connectivity during games and can be shut remotely if lost.

MLB also is working with clubs and Sony to create simulated fan noise for games to be played in empty ballparks. Each team had an iPad with more than 75 sound samples, ranging from murmurs to cheers to organists. The scoreboard operators have an app to use as guidance. Broadcasters may add more audio.

“What we’ve basically told the clubs is that they need to produce sound that mimics sounds that would otherwise have been in the ballpark if there had been fans in the ballpark,” Marinak said. “The club needs to match what they would have expected to hear had there been fans in the ballpark. To the extent that there’s issues or disputes around that, that’ll be managed by our baseball operations department.”

Let’s block ads! (Why?)



Source link

Continue Reading

Sports

DeMar DeRozan scores 27 points to lead the Kings past the Raptors 122-107

Published

 on

 

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — DeMar DeRozan scored 27 points in a record-setting performance and the Sacramento Kings beat the Toronto Raptors 122-107 on Wednesday night.

Domantas Sabonis added 17 points, 13 assists and 11 rebounds for his third triple-double of the season for Sacramento. He shot 6 for 6 from the field and 5 for 5 at the free-throw line.

Keegan Murray chipped in with 22 points and 12 rebounds, and De’Aaron Fox scored 21.

The 35-year-old DeRozan has scored at least 20 points in each of his first eight games with the Kings, breaking a franchise mark established by Chris Webber when he reached 20 in his first seven games with Sacramento in 1999.

DeRozan spent the past three seasons with the Chicago Bulls. The six-time All-Star also has played for Toronto and San Antonio during his 16-year NBA career.

RJ Barrett had 23 points to lead the Raptors. Davion Mitchell scored 20 in his first game in Sacramento since being traded to Toronto last summer.

Takeaways

Raptors: Toronto led for most of the first three quarters before wilting in the fourth. The Raptors were outscored 33-14 in the final period.

Kings: Fox played strong defense but struggled again shooting from the floor as he is dealing with a finger injury. Fox went 5 for 17 and just 2 of 8 on 3-pointers. He is 5 for 25 from beyond the arc in his last three games.

Key moment

The Kings trailed 95-89 early in the fourth before going on a 9-0 run that gave them the lead for good. DeRozan started the spurt with a jumper, and Malik Monk scored the final seven points.

Key stat

Sabonis had the eighth game in the NBA since at least 1982-83 with a triple-double while missing no shots from the field or foul line. The previous player to do it was Josh Giddey for Oklahoma City against Portland on Jan. 11.

Up next

Raptors: At the Los Angeles Clippers on Saturday night, the third stop on a five-game trip.

Kings: Host the Clippers on Friday night.

___

AP NBA:

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

Source link

Continue Reading

Sports

Whitecaps take confidence, humility into decisive playoff matchup vs. LAFC

Published

 on

 

VANCOUVER – The Vancouver Whitecaps are one win away from moving on to the next round of the Major League Soccer playoffs.

To get there, however, the Whitecaps will need to pull off the improbable by defeating the powerhouse Los Angeles FC for a second straight game.

Vancouver blanked the visitors 3-0 on Sunday to level their best-of-three first-round playoff series at a game apiece. As the matchup shifts back to California for a decisive Game 3 on Friday, the Whitecaps are looking for a repeat performance, said striker Brian White.

“We take the good and the bad from last game, learn from what we could have done better and go to LAFC with confidence and, obviously, with a whole lot of respect,” he said.

“We know that we can go there and give them a very good fight and hopefully come away with a win.”

The winner of Friday’s game will face the No. 4-seed Seattle Sounders in a one-game Western Conference semifinal on Nov. 23 or 24.

The ‘Caps finished the regular season eighth in the west with a 13-13-8 record and have since surprised many with their post-season play.

First, Vancouver trounced its regional rivals, the Portland Timbers, 5-0 in a wild-card game. Then, the squad dropped a tightly contested 2-1 decision to the top-seeded L.A. before posting a decisive home victory on Sunday.

Vancouver has scored seven goals this post-season, second only to the L.A. Galaxy (nine). Vancouver also leads the league in expected goals (6.84) through the playoffs.

No one outside of the club expected the Whitecaps to win when the Vancouver-L. A. series began, said defender Ranko Veselinovic.

“We’ve shown to ourselves that we can compete with them,” he said.

Now in his fifth season with the ‘Caps, Veselinovic said Friday’s game will be the biggest he’s played for the team.

“We haven’t had much success in the playoffs so, definitely, this is the one that can put our season on another level,” he said.

This is the second year in a row the Whitecaps have faced LAFC in the first round of the playoffs and last year, Vancouver was ousted in two straight games.

The team isn’t thinking about revenge as it prepares for Game 3, White said.

“More importantly than (beating LAFC), we want to get to the next round,” he said. “LAFC’s a very good team. We’ve come up against them a number of times in different competitions and they always seem to get the better of us. So it’d be huge for us to get the better of them this time.”

Earning a win last weekend required slowing L.A.’s transition game and limiting offensive opportunities for the team’s big stars, including Denis Bouanga.

Those factors will be important again on Friday, said Whitecaps head coach Vanni Sartini, who warned that his team could face a different style of game.

“I think the most important thing is going to be to match their intensity at the beginning of the game,” he said. “Because I think they’re going to come at us a million miles per hour.”

The ‘Caps will once again look to captain Ryan Gauld for some offensive firepower. The Scottish attacking midfielder leads MLS in playoff goals with five and has scored in all three of Vancouver’s post-season appearances this year.

Gearing up for another do-or-die matchup is exciting, Gauld said.

“Knowing it’s a winner-takes-all kind of game, being in that kind of environment is nice,” he said. “It’s when you see the best in players.”

LAFC faces the bulk of the pressure heading into the matchup, Sartini said, given the club’s appearances in the last two MLS Cup finals and its 2022 championship title.

“They’re supposed to win and we are not,” the coach said. “But it’s beautiful to have a little bit of pressure on us, too.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 6, 2024.

Source link

Continue Reading

Sports

PWHL unveils game jerseys with new team names, logos

Published

 on

 

TORONTO – The Professional Women’s Hockey League has revealed the jersey designs for its six newly named teams.

Each PWHL team operated under its city name, with players wearing jerseys featuring the league’s logo in its inaugural season before names and logos were announced last month.

The Toronto Sceptres, Montreal Victoire, Ottawa Charge, Boston Fleet, Minnesota Frost and New York Sirens will start the PWHL’s second season on Nov. 30 with jerseys designed to reflect each team’s identity and to be sold to the public as replicas.

Led by PWHL vice-president of brand and marketing Kanan Bhatt-Shah, the league consulted Creative Agency Flower Shop to design the jerseys manufactured by Bauer, the PWHL said Thursday in a statement.

“Players and fans alike have been waiting for this moment and we couldn’t be happier with the six unique looks each team will don moving forward,” said PWHL senior vice president of business operations Amy Scheer.

“These jerseys mark the latest evolution in our league’s history, and we can’t wait to see them showcased both on the ice and in the stands.”

Training camps open Tuesday with teams allowed to carry 32 players.

Each team’s 23-player roster, plus three reserves, will be announced Nov. 27.

Each team will play 30 regular-season games, which is six more than the first season.

Minnesota won the first Walter Cup on May 29 by beating Boston three games to two in the championship series.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

Source link

Continue Reading

Trending

Exit mobile version