The Houston Astros have officially had their 2036 World Series championship taken away after it was discovered they cheated this past season by hacking their stadium’s robotic umpires. During home games, the Astros coaching staff manipulated the MLB’s official algorithms on the home plate umpire machines to narrow the strike zone for their hitters and widen it for their pitchers, giving them an edge when the umpbots called balls and strikes. They only adjusted the strike zone by a fraction of an inch so it would not be noticeable to opposing teams and fans, but this seemingly minor advantage resulted in record-low ERAs for their pitching staff and career-high batting averages for their hitters.
The cheating scandal was discovered by a sabermetrician from the Texas Rangers organization who was investigating the discrepancy in statistics between the home/road splits for Astros players. He ran all the television footage from Astros games through an AI analytics program and discovered the slightly altered strike zones for the umpbots during games played in Houston. The MLB then confiscated Houston’s umpire machines plus the communication data among members of their coaching staff and front office to uncover the full details of the cheating operation.
When the MLB replaced all human umpires with AI and robotics in 2030, there was an initial backlash among a certain contingent of old-school baseball fans, players, and coaches. But after several successful seasons, most came to prefer the consistent strike zones and error-free calls of the umpbots. The robotic umpire crews use cameras, sensors, and radar to ensure every call throughout every game is correct. This recent hacking scandal has reignited the movement to return to human umpires, flaws and all, but the MLB commissioner said they will continue using umpbots—but with upgraded security software to prevent future hacks.
The hacked umpbots helped the Astros defeat the Orlando Marlins in this year’s World Series in six games. There was hope among Marlins fans that Orlando would be awarded the championship, which would have been the franchise’s first title since moving from Miami over concerns of rising sea levels due to climate change. However, the MLB commissioner announced there will be no official champion in 2036. The Astros will be penalized next season by losing their first-round draft pick and having their umpbot strike zones adjusted to favor the opposing teams.