Bad Call

Technology's Attack on Referees and Umpires and How to Fix It

Nonfiction, Science & Nature, Technology, Social Aspects, Sports, Science
Cover of the book Bad Call by Harry Collins, Robert Evans, Christopher Higgins, The MIT Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Harry Collins, Robert Evans, Christopher Higgins ISBN: 9780262337755
Publisher: The MIT Press Publication: September 30, 2016
Imprint: The MIT Press Language: English
Author: Harry Collins, Robert Evans, Christopher Higgins
ISBN: 9780262337755
Publisher: The MIT Press
Publication: September 30, 2016
Imprint: The MIT Press
Language: English

How technologies can get it wrong in sports, and what the consequences are—referees undermined, fans heartbroken, and the illusion of perfect accuracy maintained.

Good call or bad call, referees and umpires have always had the final say in sports. Bad calls are more visible: plays are televised backward and forward and in slow motion. New technologies—the Hawk-Eye system used in tennis and cricket, for example, and the goal-line technology used in English football—introduced to correct bad calls sometimes get it right and sometimes get it wrong, but always undermine the authority of referees and umpires. Bad Call looks at the technologies used to make refereeing decisions in sports, analyzes them in action, and explains the consequences.

Used well, technologies can help referees reach the right decision and deliver justice for fans: a fair match in which the best team wins. Used poorly, however, decision-making technologies pass off statements of probability as perfect accuracy and perpetuate a mythology of infallibility. The authors re-analyze three seasons of play in English Premier League football, and discover that goal line technology was irrelevant; so many crucial wrong decisions were made that different teams should have won the Premiership, advanced to the Champions League, and been relegated. Simple video replay could have prevented most of these bad calls. (Major League baseball learned this lesson, introducing expanded replay after a bad call cost Detroit Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga a perfect game.)

What matters in sports is not computer-generated projections of ball position but what is seen by the human eye—reconciling what the sports fan sees and what the game official sees.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

How technologies can get it wrong in sports, and what the consequences are—referees undermined, fans heartbroken, and the illusion of perfect accuracy maintained.

Good call or bad call, referees and umpires have always had the final say in sports. Bad calls are more visible: plays are televised backward and forward and in slow motion. New technologies—the Hawk-Eye system used in tennis and cricket, for example, and the goal-line technology used in English football—introduced to correct bad calls sometimes get it right and sometimes get it wrong, but always undermine the authority of referees and umpires. Bad Call looks at the technologies used to make refereeing decisions in sports, analyzes them in action, and explains the consequences.

Used well, technologies can help referees reach the right decision and deliver justice for fans: a fair match in which the best team wins. Used poorly, however, decision-making technologies pass off statements of probability as perfect accuracy and perpetuate a mythology of infallibility. The authors re-analyze three seasons of play in English Premier League football, and discover that goal line technology was irrelevant; so many crucial wrong decisions were made that different teams should have won the Premiership, advanced to the Champions League, and been relegated. Simple video replay could have prevented most of these bad calls. (Major League baseball learned this lesson, introducing expanded replay after a bad call cost Detroit Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga a perfect game.)

What matters in sports is not computer-generated projections of ball position but what is seen by the human eye—reconciling what the sports fan sees and what the game official sees.

More books from The MIT Press

Cover of the book The Man Who Saw Tomorrow by Harry Collins, Robert Evans, Christopher Higgins
Cover of the book The Ethics of Computer Games by Harry Collins, Robert Evans, Christopher Higgins
Cover of the book Against Moral Responsibility by Harry Collins, Robert Evans, Christopher Higgins
Cover of the book The Environmental Humanities by Harry Collins, Robert Evans, Christopher Higgins
Cover of the book Public Sector Economics and the Need for Reforms by Harry Collins, Robert Evans, Christopher Higgins
Cover of the book Digital Methods by Harry Collins, Robert Evans, Christopher Higgins
Cover of the book Now the Chips Are Down by Harry Collins, Robert Evans, Christopher Higgins
Cover of the book Chasing Men on Fire by Harry Collins, Robert Evans, Christopher Higgins
Cover of the book How to Be Human in the Digital Economy by Harry Collins, Robert Evans, Christopher Higgins
Cover of the book Traversals by Harry Collins, Robert Evans, Christopher Higgins
Cover of the book Cultivating Food Justice by Harry Collins, Robert Evans, Christopher Higgins
Cover of the book Debugging Game History by Harry Collins, Robert Evans, Christopher Higgins
Cover of the book On the Brink of Paradox by Harry Collins, Robert Evans, Christopher Higgins
Cover of the book A Vast Machine by Harry Collins, Robert Evans, Christopher Higgins
Cover of the book A Natural History of Natural Theology by Harry Collins, Robert Evans, Christopher Higgins
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy