Robot ump, human error and a hot mic — what actually happened in Korean baseball's ABS blunder?

The KBO this year became the most prominent league in the world to adopt the automated ball-strike system (ABS), more commonly known as the robot umpire. ABS met its greatest challenge yet over the weekend — human error and an attempted cover-up.

The KBO this year became the most prominent baseball league in the world to adopt the automated ball-strike system (ABS), more commonly known as the robot umpire, used to more accurately determine balls and strikes through a high-tech tracking system with calls relayed to the umpire through an earpiece.

The system has been met with mixed reviews. The automation provides some stability during games, but the robot ump’s calls have often confused fans and players who are used to a narrower or less stringent zone. But it's hard to argue with a robot, so calls have gone mostly unchallenged as the league adapts to its new norm.

That changed over the weekend when the ABS met its biggest challenge yet — human error.

In fact, it was human error combined with very human duplicity, as the umpires during a game between the NC Dinos and Samsung Lions on Sunday not only made the wrong call, but then attempted to cover up their mistake by blaming the technology — all while audible through a hot mic.

What was the call? It’s the bottom of the third inning at Daegu Samsung Lions Park in Daegu as the Lions host the Dinos in the final match-up of a three-game weekend series. Samsung have a runner at first and infielder Lee Jae-hyeon is at bat with two outs.

Dinos starter Lee Jae-hak throws a fastball over the outside of the plate. Samsung’s Lee Jae-hyeon doesn’t swing, and home plate umpire Moon Seong-hoon calls a ball.

The inning continues after that call, and Dinos’ Lee Jae-hak picks up two more balls and a strike before Dinos manager Kang In-kwon comes onto the field, protesting Moon’s ball call from the fastball three pitches prior — saying the robot ump had flagged it as a strike.

Top: NC Dinos pitcher Lee Jae-hyuk throws a strike that was incorrectly called as a ball during a game against the Samsung Lions at Daegu Samsung Lions Park in Daegu on Sunday. Above: The resulting confusion saw both the NC Dinos coaching staff and the Samsung Lions coaching staff (pictured) confront the umpires to try and understand what was happening. [SCREEN CAPTURE; SAMSUNG LIONS]

Why did the challenge take so long?

ABS calls are made available to both the umpires and the dugout, but not at the same time. The ABS delivers calls directly to umpires through an earpiece while coaches and players in the dugout get the results on a tablet.

But there is a slight delay between when the umpire gets the ABS call through their earpiece — supposedly immediately after the pitch — and when the results reach the tablet screen in the dugout.

The delay is apparently because the tablets run on stadium Wi-Fi, which can run extremely slowly when there are 10s of thousands of bodies in the stadium. According to a KBO club official quoted by the JoongAng Ilbo, an affiliate of the Korea JoongAng Daily, the delay can be anywhere between 20 seconds and a minute.

NC Dinos manager Kang In-kwon watches the game against the Samsung Lions at Daegu Samsung Lions Park in Daegu on Sunday. [NC DINOS]

On Sunday, the Dinos’ Lee Jae-hak had thrown three more pitches before their manager made it to the field to flag the robot ump’s strike.

What happened next?

After the challenge, Moon gathered with crew chief Lee Min-ho and third base umpire Chu Pyung-ho to discuss the call as the Dinos coaches waited off to the side — a conversation that, unbeknownst to the umpires, was picked up by a mic used in the broadcast.

In this file photo, KBO umpire Lee Min-ho, left, talks to NC Dinos manager Kang In-kwon during the first inning of a playoff game between the KT Wiz and NC Dinos at Suwon KT Wiz Park in Suwon, Gyeonggi on Oct. 30, 2023. [NEWS1]

Moments later, the umps announced to the ballpark that Moon’s call — marking the earlier pitch a ball — would stand, even as they acknowledged it should have been called a strike.

"On the second pitch, the home plate umpire heard the ‘ball’ call, but after reviewing the ABS monitor we saw that the pitch was actually a strike,” Lee Min-ho announced over the stadium PA system. “The Dinos appealed, but as a rule the challenge has to be made before the next pitch is thrown. Based on that rule, the original call stands.”

So what’s the conspiracy?

The whole saga might have ended there, with a very disgruntled Dinos manager and some serious questions about the reliability of the ABS system. Except Lee Min-ho was lying, and he’d accidentally just revealed it on national television.

While the conversation from the umpires’ huddle before the PA announcement was drowned out by the noise in the ballpark, clips of what they said were broadcast to audiences watching the game from home.

"We should tell people you heard ‘ball.’ Got it? That is the only way for us to get out of this,” Lee Min-ho was heard telling Moon.

After Moon agreed, Lee Min-ho doubled down: "You have to say 'it was ball,' not 'it sounded like ball,' if we don't want to get hammered for this."

But it wasn’t “ball.” The KBO has since confirmed that the call was “strike,” it was always “strike,” and the error was entirely on Moon.

For whatever reason — be it mishearing the call, ignoring the call, forgetting to wait for the call, or losing focus for a second and winging it in the most spectacularly unsuccessful way — Moon had gone off script for at least that one pitch and delivered a call that directly contradicted what the ABS voice was saying in his ear. Lee Min-ho had then attempted to put the blame on the ABS, rather than admitting it was Moon's mistake.

The automated ball-strike system (ABS) is introduced ahead of the 2024 KBO season at a press briefing in southern Seoul on March 7. [NEWS1]

What happened next?

While the call was very obviously wrong, it is true that a challenge has to be made before the next pitch is thrown. The call stood on the day, although it raised very big questions about the ABS technology, particularly about the speed in which the feed reaches the dugout.

While viewers at home were privy to the umpires’ illicit conversation, everybody in the stadium was not. The game went on (Samsung won 12-5) and the reckoning came a day later.

What did the KBO do?

As details of the whole story became clear, the KBO on Monday immediately suspended Lee Min-ho, Moon and Chu after a meeting chaired by Commissioner Heo Koo-youn. Further punishment for the trio will be decided at a later date.

The league also announced that effective immediately, an ABS official present at every game will be allowed to intervene if any confusion arises during the transmission of a call to the home plate ump’s earpiece.

The KBO also said it will provide all 10 teams with new devices that will allow the dugout to receive ABS calls in real-time, theoretically allowing for challenges to be made before the next pitch is thrown.

BY JIM BULLEY AND MARY YANG [jim.bulley@joongang.co.kr]