My two favorite sports have introduced some changes this year. It’s early days, so I don’t have much to say yet but wanted to share my early reactions.
Baseball - ABS System
The Automated Ball-Strike Challenge System is pretty straightforward. If the pitcher, catcher, or batter feel that the home plate umpire has flubbed the call they can quickly tap their head to indicate they’re going to challenge that play. At that point, we all get to look at the big screen and see what the Hawk-Eye system tracked. You can challenge as many times as you like if you’re successful, but there’s only two wrong challenges allowed before you lose the privilege (at least until extra innings, where I believe you get one back).
My take: I’m loving this system. It adds an element of suspense to big moments and (at least while a batter has challenges remaining) it stops some of the traditional pouting that batters want to direct toward the umpire at the end an unfruitful at bat. They don’t like the calls? Well, then they should have challenged. And limiting teams to two unsuccessful challenges is the correct move: if an umpire is really that inaccurate then the fans do want the system to be constantly correcting them to keep the game honest, but if the ump was the one who had it right than the limit prevents “games”, like a gassed pitcher challenging called balls just to catch his breath.
Formula One - A New Formula for ‘26
Every few years F1 rejiggers the formula (or ruleset) that the teams have to operate under when constructing their car. This year has seen one of the biggest changes to the rules in the history of the sport. Yet there’s really only one group of rules operating in tandem that I want to comment on here, and that’s the rules around the powertrain needing to be half electric motor, half internal combustion motor, coupled with an energy harvesting system that stores up electric power to be deployed with an “overtake” button.
My take: I want to see a racing driver going flat out, using all their skill and bravery to bring a car to the absolute limit. What we’re seeing under the new formula is not that. I’m watching drivers deliberately going really slow through certain corners, or getting off the throttle long before a strait ends, or letting other drivers pass them deliberately, all to end of harvesting the maximum amount of charge for their batteries. Because if you’ve got 100% charge, guess what? You’re going to be able to leverage the full boost of the electric motor to enormously increase the power you can put out elsewhere on the track, and it’s been proven now that is the fastest way to drive these cars.
I’m not saying the three races thus far haven’t been entertaining. I’ve enjoyed them immensely and we’re seeing some entertaining battles for position throughout the field. There is, however, an unmistakably artificial feel to the spectacle. Emphasis on that word because F1 seems to be pushing the entertainment value over the sporting value. It needs to be a balance and, with the rules as they stand today, it just isn’t.