The Atlantic League was the first professional league to use the Automated Ball Strike system. It started on July 25, 2019 when home games hosted by the High Point Rockers, Lancaster Barnstormers and Long Island Ducks used the ABS technology. The ALPB donated the earpiece used by home plate umpire Fred De Jesus in the New Britain Bees at Long Island Ducks contest, the first regular season game to utilize ABS to call balls and strikes. The earpiece is symbolic of the new technology the ALPB featured in games played in the second half of the 2019 season and throughout the 2021 campaign.
After moving on to a number of affiliated minor leagues, Major League Baseball is experimenting with the ABS system in select spring training games this season.
Here are a few samples of how the national media is reporting on ABS: