I'd like to enter a little mathematics into this conversation about timing - a little reality if you will.
Pitchers throw in the 90 MPH range. Infielders probably not quite so fast but let's just assume 75 MPH. Runners move their bodies at less than 20 MPH. Obviously you can see the ball is moving 4 times as fast as the runner. So what happens to the positions of the ball and of the runner in this magical number of 0.04 seconds?
In the duration of 0.04 seconds:
A 75 MPH ball will move 52.8 inches (over 4 feet!)
A 20 MPH runner will move 14.1 inches.
This is the purported ability of the human eye to differentiate one time from another - our level of discernment.
So as AtlBlue pointed out with the timing of a regular video camera at one still picture/frame every 0.033 seconds, what happens?
In the duration of 0.033 seconds:
A 75 MPH ball will move 44 inches
A 20 MPH runner will move 11.7 inches
So in one frame the ball is some unknown distance away from the mitt and in the next frame the ball is 44 inches closer or possibly caught... When did the catch and the out occur? Is the out when the ball reaches the front of the mitt or when it reaches the back of the mitt (the pocket)?
Oooh let's assume that the distance between the front to the back of a mitt is 4 inches... at 75 MPH that distance is covered in 0.003 seconds, 3 thousandths of a second! And that 0.003 seconds also assumes the mitt is not moving toward the ball. So really, with a mitt moving toward the ball, the actual amount of time required to discern the moment of the catch/out is even less than the 0.003 seconds.
Got the call right or wrong based upon a camera that can't discern the location of a thrown ball with more accuracy than 44 inches!
In my opinion, there is one thing that gets a call right and it's called an umpire. It's not lasers and questek cameras; it's an umpire and his perception. What makes the call seem correct to the observers is how well that umpire perceives and presents that perception to the observers. And after a little umpiring work (experience),it is mostly the presentation - selling the call.
Until this game gets played by robots with electronic sensors in the balls and in the mitts and on bases and shoes, lasers, etc. IT IS ME THAT DETERMINES WHETHER A CALL IS CORRECT OR NOT.
I realize that a quicker camera could be used and perhaps these statements of right or wrong call could be determined with a more sophisticated video system... but as of yet, in the act of officiating a game, it is still me that makes the call... and I'm being a little bold here, but by damn, when I make the call it's RIGHT because I present it and sell it to be right.
Okay maybe not fully 100% but a damn sight better than 35 or 60 or whatever he said. I would guess that I make more than 100 judgements/calls before I get one questioned, therefore my percentage correct is greater than 99%.
In summary, I think "correct" means good salesmanship.
Ooh and Werner Heisenberg is on my side too.
