This is 99% Invisible.

I'm Roman Mars.

And it's baseball season.

If you haven't watched a game in a while, it can be a little confusing to jump back in.

Major League Baseball has introduced a lot of rule changes in the last few years, including a countdown clock for pitchers to make the game go faster.

They've also made it a rule that pitchers have to show their hands to the umpire between

endings to make sure that the players aren't using any gooey substances to get an extra

strong grip on the ball.

But this season, the one rule change that everybody is talking about is the introduction

of robot umpires. Starting in 2026, if a player

doesn't like a ball or a strike call, they can appeal to a robot arbitrator called the ABS

system who can overturn the call. And that one's going to be challenged. You know what?

He gets it right.

Reverse from a strike to a ball.

You may remember the name, ABS System, because we talked about it back in 2023.

Today, we're going to replay that episode, and then I'll be joined by producer Chris

Perube for an update on how the robot umpires

are doing now that they've reached the major leagues. All right, play ball.

If you're a baseball fan, you might remember the 1997 playoffs. That's when pitcher Levan

Hernandez was unstoppable. Can Levin Hernandez get out of it?

Yes, he can.

Hernandez was a rookie for the Florida Marlins, and his masterpiece was game five of the

...