> They’ve had the technology for over 20 years. The only thing that’s changed in the last 5 is betting.

What has not changed since before both of those timelines is baseball umpires have a union[0].

Maybe, just maybe, their union fought the introduction of this to the bitter end.

0 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_League_Baseball_Umpires_...

Manfred (Commissioner) started 10 years ago.

He oversaw the last collective bargaining agreement in 2021/22. It’s expiring this year. That’s one of the reasons why the rule change is going through now.

I won’t deny that sports betting could be a factor, but Manfred wants faster more engaging baseball. That’s been his stated goal for a long time as he worked through rule changes.

You may be correct, but the rate of change in baseball is glacially slow compared to the other sports. One of baseball's intrinsic values is it's legacy, tradition, and history. Some may scoff at that, and I think there are good arguments against legacy/tradition as a reason to withhold change, but there are a lot of people out there that believe this. The MLB Commissioner's have largely been tasked with protecting that tradition and history.

I couldn't count the number of things that have changed in the last five years. However, related to Baseball here's a small list to start. https://www.baseball-almanac.com/rulechng.shtml

There's also Angel Hernández retiring.