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Over the more than 100 years since MLB’s inception, the athletic ability of people in general has changed. To continue to be relevant, the game itself has had to change as well. Although professional baseball is often considered a game that rarely changes, it does, in fact, morph to suit the times, from changes in the height of the pitching mound to the addition of artificial turf. The future of baseball may include modern innovations such as the following: • A pitch clock—The delay between pitches has grown incrementally over the decades. Today, the pace of the game suffers from these delays by adding more than ten additional minutes to each game. To keep the

attention of fans, MLB has considered adding a pitch clock that limits the amount of time a pitcher has to throw the ball, much like the play clock in American football or the shot clock in basketball. • Automated strike zones—Although they will never completely replace umpires, these high-tech devices

electronically define strike zones, making

Automatic strike zone technology may one day replace one of the biggest parts of an umpire’s job – calling balls and strikes.

them more exact. They also automatically detect whether or not a pitch is a strike. No longer would strikes and balls be judged by eye but rather by automated technology.

14 CONNECTING STEM AND SPORTS | BASEBALL AND SOFTBALL