BALTIMORE — Major League Baseball now uses technology to confirm or overturn balls and strikes.
Is it time for something similar around the foul poles?
The Baltimore Orioles certainly felt aggrieved Wednesday night against the Yankees after Pete Alonso’s deep fly to left field in the seventh inning was ruled foul — and the call was upheld on a review.
The play occurred with the game tied at 3. The Yankees then scored twice in top of the eighth and went on to win 5-3.
“I think a simple fix is like football, you have the pylon camera with the plane, where it shoots right across the goal line,” Alonso said. “And I feel like, for us, we could easily have a laser or a camera that shoots straight up.”
Manager Craig Albernaz shared Alonso’s frustration.
“On the dugout iPads there’s ball-tracking data with the field that the players see, so it’s really tough to have that (call) come back as ‘stands’ and have that visual in the dugout as well. It’s 2026,” Albernaz said. “There are teams using AI on the iPads and other sports use ball-tracking data for challengeable calls. Don’t understand why we don’t do it.”
At least one replay seemed to show the ball on the fair side of the pole, but it wasn’t clear what angle that shot was from.
“What I was told is in order to overturn a call, you need to have two camera angles to confirm it,” Alonso said. “But the best view, the only view that shows the ball fair or foul is the one down the line, but no other camera angle is available. So video room rules it foul, umpire obviously called it foul initially. It is what it is.”
It might have been easier for the umpire — and the replay room — to make the call if Alonso’s hit hadn’t been so high. It appeared to tower above the foul pole at one point.
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“That we don’t have the technology in place to actually say, ‘Hey, this was fair or foul,’ is literally crazy in 2026. It’s crazy,” said Chris Bassitt, Baltimore’s starting pitcher Wednesday.
Bassitt then blamed financial considerations for why such technology isn’t used.
“Because it would cost money,” he said. “That’s it. I mean, that’s literally it.”
