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Analyzing Umpire Influence on Game Outcome
- Program: Computer Science
- Course: EN.601.513 Group Undergraduate Project
- Year: 2025
Project Description:
Umpires play a critical role in baseball by enforcing rules and making judgment calls, particularly in pitch-calling, which significantly affects game flow and results. Given the subjective nature of these decisions, umpires are susceptible to cognitive biases that may consciously or unconsciously influence their calls.
This ongoing study provides an initial examination into a few dimensions of umpire bias.
Project Photo:
Umpire signaling for a strikeout: a pivotal call in a game situation, especially on a full count.
Project Poster
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Project Poster Summary:
From the project’s inception to a series of investigations to a preliminary set of conclusions, this poster outlines a full semester’s worth of work analyzing umpire bias in MLB baseball game. The semester began with a game-by-game analysis of umpire’s home vs away bias. The project’s focus later shifted to focus on a narrower pitch by pitch scope where umpire accuracy on different pitch types and count scenarios was compared. As the project continues, the goal is to continue identifying aspects of the game where umpires have a tendency to incorporate bias and ultimately whether or not the Automatic Ball-Strike (ABS) challenge system or something similar is capable of patching said shortcomings.