Back to the Gut: MLB Pulls the Plug on the AI Tablet
AI-generated image · US National Wire
The league is stripping custom software from dugout iPads, signaling a return to the human element of the game.
Listen, I’ve spent enough time around the diamond to know that baseball isn't played on a screen. It's played in the dirt, with a bit of intuition and a lot of sweat. For too long, we've seen the game drift toward the digital, and it looks like the league is finally waking up to the fact that we're losing the soul of the sport to a piece of glass.
As Yahoo Sports first reported, Major League Baseball is now restricting the use of iPads in dugouts. The goal is simple: stop teams from using artificial intelligence to make real-time decisions. While the tablets still provide access to league-provided data and video, MLB has officially shut down the 'custom tab' that allowed teams to run outside programs.
**OPINION: This is a win for the game.** Baseball is about the battle between a pitcher and a hitter, not a battle between two algorithms. When you let a machine dictate the flow of the game, you strip away the instinct that makes this sport legendary.
As first reported by The Athletic, a June 11 memo from MLB executive vice president of baseball operations Morgan Sword revealed just how far some clubs had pushed the technology. Sword noted that the custom tabs were being used for things that should be left to the humans in the dugout—specifically recommendations for pitch calling, substitutions, and other in-game decisions. These are the very calls that define a manager's legacy or a player's grit.
MLB isn't just guessing that this is happening. The Associated Press reports that a review by the competition committee found that clubs had been compliant with existing regulations, but the league decided to draw a hard line anyway. To give teams a fair shake, the prohibition took effect on Wednesday night, coinciding with the start of the season's second half. This gave clubs that had become dependent on the custom tab time to adjust their ways, as Sword noted in the memo.
It’s a strange cycle. The Associated Press notes that MLB started a restricted pilot program for dugout iPads late in the 2015 season, expanding the partnership with Apple in 2016. We saw video vanish during the 2020 COVID season in the wake of the Houston Astros' sign-stealing scandal, only for it to return in 2021.
But this latest move is different. This isn't about sign-stealing; it's about the fundamental nature of the game. By removing the AI-driven recommendations, MLB is essentially telling the managers and coaches to put the tablets down and trust their eyes. It's about time we got back to the gut feel.