The Debut Of Baseball's ABS Challenge System At The All Star Game Shows We Need It In Real Games Immediately

History! Our first ever appearance of the ABS challenge system in a big league game and it's successful. What a good spot to use it in too with a pitch that caught plenty of plate. I'm sure conspiracy theorists will say that happened on purpose to showcase the new system. I mean that's insane to not call that a strike, but that's how we got here. Umpires are so bad at their job that we needed to do something to counter their repeated mistakes. We can't touch the umpire's union to actually fine or suspend these guys so this is the answer. 

Does it need to be a tad quicker? Probably, but the drama of the ball appearing on the screen like it used to in tennis is elite. That's just good entertainment for everybody, besides of course the umpire who gets humiliated if the call is overturned. 

My hope with the ABS challenge system is that it urges umpires to get better as a whole. Now that umps can be embarrassed like this in theory they'll lock in more so the challenges are kept to a minimum. I think off the bat there will be pushback and concern because it's something new, but just like the pitch clock I think we'll eventually wonder how we didn't do this sooner. I can't wait. 

By the way, I never want to see a full scale automatic strike zone because 1) that'd be a shit show 2) human error is part of the game. We just needed a way to correct egregious misses like the one above. I wish it could get the green light for when the regular season resumes on Friday, but that's not how it works with rule changes. I feel like it'd be a stunner if it's not in place for good by next spring training. C.B. Bucknor, your days are numbered.