- T-Mobile provided a front-row seat to the MLB’s Automated Ball Strike (ABS) system at T-Mobile Park in downtown Seattle
- Seattle Mariners owner and long-time wireless industry exec John Stanton discussed what led to ABS
- Near as we can tell, the ABS is working well – and T-Mobile gets credit for providing the 5G private networks that make it all happen
SEATTLE, WASHINGTON – T-Mobile didn’t invent the Automated Ball Strike (ABS) system. That’s the brainchild of Major League Baseball (MLB) and its partners. But it certainly plays a starring role in its deployment.
Big Magenta, based in Bellevue, Washington, invited a handful of journalists, including yours truly, to see the ABS in action at T-Mobile Park on Friday. The Seattle Mariners played the Kansas City Royals and — spoiler alert — the Mariners lost 7-6, but there was a lot of action (for a baseball game, we’re told) and we were able to see the ABS in play.
For the uninitiated, here’s how it works: If a pitcher, catcher or batter disagrees with an umpire’s call of a ball or strike, he can request a challenge by tapping on his hat or helmet. Within seconds, the ABS confirms or revokes the call, showing the results on the scoreboard. Players and fans see the results at the same time.
T-Mobile’s ties to MLB, Mariners
Before Friday’s game, John Stanton, founder of VoiceStream Wireless – the precursor to T-Mobile – gave us some background on how the ABS came to be. Stanton is a wireless pioneer, having served in executive roles at McCaw Cellular and later establishing and selling businesses like VoiceStream and Clearwire. Now he’s an owner and chairman of the Mariners, so, like… yeah!
Part of what led the MLB to ABS was a desire to shorten the length of games, which over a 20-year period had gone from an average of two and a half hours to three hours and 15 minutes.
About seven years ago, Stanton was appointed to head the MLB’s rules committee, which conducted a bunch of research and collected fan feedback to find ways to shorten the game and inject more action. Some rule changes, like a pitch clock, were adopted. Eventually, the MLB also decided an ABS system was the way to go. That eventually led to discussions with T-Mobile, which agreed to take on the challenge, so to speak.
They originally had a target of 17 seconds for the challenge system, from the time a player taps his head to the point the final call is displayed for all to see on the jumbo screen, according to Stanton. But now in practice, the average length of time per challenge is about 15 seconds, “and that’s because of the speed and efficiency of the network,” he said.
Higher-lower, lower-higher radios
T-Mobile installed a private network inside T-Mobile Park that uses Ericsson Dot radios. The network connects to 12 Hawk-Eye cameras that sit around the perimeter of the field to track the location and triangulate each pitch as it crosses home plate.
“There’s a mix of technologies in here,” said Scott Jacka, senior director of Technology Development Strategy at T-Mobile.
The exact number of radios deployed wasn’t immediately available, but higher power radios are mounted in the lower sections of the stadium and lower power radios are in the upper sections to prevent signal spillover or “leakage,” he said.
RELATED: T-Mobile deploys 5G ball-strike challenge system for Major League Baseball
Once a pitch is thrown, T-Mobile’s 5G private network collects ABS data and transmits it through the 5G-connected devices. The low latency of T-Mobile’s 5G advanced network enables all this to happen in real time.
Apparently, it’s working well. Jerry Dipito, president of baseball operations for the Mariners, said that in some ways, they’re still learning how to use the ABS, noting that the MLB just rolled it out on opening day April 13. But his team is being very strategic in how they use their two challenges/game, and it’s already been used to effectively flip a game.
Ericsson, Nokia both in Seattle
T-Mobile’s private 5G network in the ballpark is not to be confused with a distributed antenna system (DAS), which is a completely different animal. T-Mobile doesn’t have or participate in a DAS at T-Mobile Park, Jacka said.
And T-Mobile’s macro network in Seattle, supplied by Nokia, is separate from the private network installed by Ericsson in T-Mobile Park.
To be clear, the ABS and T-Mobile’s involvement is not restricted to T-Mobile Park. The park happens to be in T-Mobile’s hometown, but the carrier has implemented these private 5G networks in all 29 MLB stadiums in the U.S. It doesn’t supply one for the Toronto Blue Jays because T-Mobile isn’t licensed to operate in Canada.
T-Mobile’s MLB perks
T-Mobile’s involvement with MLB isn’t limited to its network prowess, either. A full-blown marketing blitz accompanies practically everything the company does, so of course that pertains to MLB.
For example, through its T-Life app, it offers all kinds of perks like faster entry into T-Mobile Park and a couple other stadiums when customers are on a qualifying plan. There’s Club Magenta at select MLB games, with player meet-and-greets, and free MLB.TV all season long for T-Mobile “members” who signed up before March 30.
Beyond that, T-Mobile hawks discounts on hotels and rental cars, among other things, for baseball fans traveling to MLB games.
In other words, they’ve got it covered, from the technology on the field to the fans in the stands.
Full disclosure and footnote: The author of this article watched the May 1 game from T-Mobile’s suite at T-Mobile Park, which is directly behind (above?) home plate and next to the Mariners’ suite. We don’t profess to be baseball aficionados, but we’re glad to learn that Mariners star catcher Cal Raleigh is good with his nickname, the Big Dumper.