Pete and his wife Anita at an adult softball league state tournament in Champaign. (Pete Peterson)

Baseball is using an automated system that allows players and managers to challenge the home plate umpire’s call of balls and strikes.

In this edition of Reading Baseball, Pete Peterson asks if taking a human element partly out of the game is making the sport dumber?

Reading Baseball is a series of essays and commentaries by Richard “Pete” Peterson, author of Growing Up With Clemente and editor of The St. Louis Baseball Reader.