FOX Has A New Toy

Last week, we noted that FOX was going to try military grade thermal-imaging cameras in their broadcasts. From the original AP article:

The cameras spot the friction-heat generated when a ball hits a bat or players’ protective padding and gloves. Little nicks or glances that the naked eye may miss because the ball is traveling so fast and the contact is so slight often show up nicely, as a white mark, with the images generated by the Hot Spot system.Sounds great, but I had no idea what it meant. Sure, I’ve played Call of Duty 4 and everything, but I have a hard time telling my military grade thermal-imaging cameras from my standard civilian grade thermal-imaging cameras that I don’t use to see what my neighbor’s up to. What does it look like in a baseball context?

Huh. That’s interesting. Sure would have helped when Reggie Jackson was packing heat and trying to kill the Queen of England. It’s probably pretty useful if you can tell if a player has to go to the bathroom. Just keep throwing over to first. Pickoff throw after pickoff throw ... when you finally do pitch, the hitter will have no choice but to swing. It can’t lose!