THE CHEAP SEATS with STEVE CAMERON: Perhaps a mix between robot and real umps is best

It took time, but I’m getting convinced.

Major League Baseball needs robot umpires calling balls and strikes.

Ah, well, maybe.

See, there are issues with such an overwhelming change, which we’ll explain in a minute.

But let’s agree the current situation is a mess.

Monday afternoon’s Mariners game in Cincinnati ended with two runners on base, and Julio Rodriguez at the plate representing the tying run with the score 6-3.

Umpire Marvin Hudson called him out to end the game on a low fastball.

For one of the few times during his two seasons in the big leagues, Julio was visibly angry.

In fact, going by the pitch tracer used on TV broadcasts, that pitch to Julio from Ian Gibaut WAS a strike — nicking the very bottom of the zone.

The problem?

Hudson had been all over the place calling pitches that day, from start to finish.

After a while, you could tell that no one was sure what would be a strike.

Julio probably was upset because Hudson hadn’t called low strikes all day, then rung him up to end the game.

IT MAKES you nuts, seeing two pitches to the exact same spot, back to back, called differently.

Some umpires are walking nightmares, like Laz Diaz, Angel Hernandez, and others.

Quick note: Umpires are protected by a union, which not a lot of fans realize. MLB has tried unsuccessfully to get rid of Hernandez — who in turn sued (and lost) over racial discrimination.

Anyway, a Hawk-eye system, similar to that used so well in tennis, has been tested regularly in Triple-A games this year.

On weekdays, the ABS (automated ball-strike system) simply makes the calls, then over the weekend the human umps are back in action — but with teams allowed three challenges per game.

If a challenge is upheld, you keep it.

By the way, MLB is also running a secondary experiment in its quest to make games not only faster, but filled with more action.

In that minor league trial, the strike zone has been lowered two inches.

The idea is less strikeouts on high gas.

The result has been not quite dramatic as whiffs are down less than one per nine innings. Walks, predictably, are up just a tad more.

So far, that idea seems like a wash.

Most fans, and even media members like me, have more or less been assuming that MLB’s surge toward improving the game would lead to an ABS system debuting in 2024.

Now?

We’ll probably need to wait.

Objections to the ABS come from sources besides notoriously terrible umps.

Sure, the umps’ union will be a factor, but you get the sense that if serious improvements to baseball are at stake, commissioner Rob Manfred would go to a scorched-earth policy, if necessary.

Manfred believes the future of the sport is at stake, and he’s right.

This season’s spectacular changes have been an unqualified success, which is proof that Manfred in on the right track.

OK, WHO else has a problem with robot umps?

Testing has shown that the technology, despite some worry about different ballparks and so on, can call pitches just about perfectly.

Yet there are a lot of players who don’t want it — for some old-fashioned reasons.

Huh?

Yep, there are objections to the notion of catchers framing pitches — a true skill — simply disappearing from the game.

That might be another union issue, of course.

Players also seem to be hooked on the idea that gifted control pitchers who can hit the black consistently maybe DESERVE to get called strikes that are barely out of the zone.

Think: Greg Maddux in his day, or George Kirby right now.

Then there’s the practical side.

Every call matters in the ninth inning of a 2-1 game, but players basically agree that umps should widen the zone near the end of a blowout — so everyone can get off to dinner or to a pub downtown.

In other words, players like the game they learned as kids, with the imperfections they know and understand.

PERHAPS coming generations will be more tuned to technology — although it’s hard to imagine a Hawk-eye system at every youth league game.

If I had to bet on how MLB makes its first move to address the ball-strike issue (which someday might be named for Angel Hernandez), it would be to keep human umps on the case full-time — while introducing a challenge system.

Needless to say, since cheating is almost part of baseball’s unwritten code, those strike-zone boxes on TV would have to disappear (or at least be kept from the Astros … I mean, from all teams during games).

Flesh-and-blood umps get about 94 percent of ball-strike calls correct over the course of a season, according to Statcast.

I’ll accept it.

That’s good enough, but you’d HAVE to introduce a challenge system.

Angel and Laz shouldn’t be deciding games.

Meanwhile, keep ABS on the launching pad somewhere, in case a hideous blown call decides the World Series.

That’ll work for now.

Email: [email protected]

Steve Cameron’s “Cheap Seats” columns appear in The Press four times each week, normally Tuesday through Friday unless, you know, stuff happens.

Steve suggests you take his opinions in the spirit of a Jimmy Buffett song: “Breathe In, Breathe Out, Move On.”