One day in March 1950, a batting cage at the Brooklyn Dodgers’ spring training camp in Vero Beach, Fla., became the setting for an event that looked as if it came out of the future: strikes being called not by a man in a mask, peaked cap and chest protector, but by a machine.
“This was really high-tech stuff,” said pitcher Carl Erskine, recalling the sight of the device during a telephone interview from his Indiana home.
The so-called “cross-eyed electronic umpire” introduced that day used mirrors, lenses and photoelectric cells beneath home plate that would, after detecting a strike through three slots around the plate, emit electric impulses that illuminated what The Brooklyn Eagle called a “saucy red eye” in a nearby cabinet.
Popular Science declared, “Here’s an umpire even a Dodger can’t talk back to.” Read the full report HERE.
Photo: Sports Studio Photos
{Matzav.com}
I love a story from 1950s being called “breaking news”
Please forgive my am haaratzes but who is Pepsi Meyers?
Who is Pepsi Meyers
And this 55 year old story is important to Matzav readers why?
Pepsi Meyers? i thought it was called Pepsi Cola!
Pepsi Meyers is a fictitious baseball player created by Abie Rotenberg in his new book “The Season of Pepsi Meyers” set in the year 2040.