MLB restricts using dugout iPads for AI-assisted in-game strategy; Associated Press via ESPN, July 17, 2026

 Associated Press via ESPN; MLB restricts using dugout iPads for AI-assisted in-game strategy 

"Major League Baseball is restricting iPad usage in dugouts to prevent the tablets from running artificial intelligence to help make strategy decisions, and former reliever Adam Ottavino said the New York Mets' use of technology helped prompt the move.

The tablets have access to video and league-provided data, and also included a custom tab where teams could access other programs. MLB made the custom tabs inaccessible to teams starting Wednesday night, when the second half of the season started.

"In many cases, the custom tab had expanded the use of the dugout iPads beyond their originally intended purpose to include recommendations regarding substitutions, pitch calling, and other in-game decisions traditionally made by players and coaches," MLB executive vice president of baseball operations Morgan Sword wrote in a June 11 memo to general managers, assistant GMs and video coordinators.

The memo, first reported by The Athletic, was obtained by The Associated Press.

"I read the article and I was like, I can't believe what I'm seeing," New York Yankees captain Aaron Judge said. "Teams are making decisions off of AI? Man, that's just crazy."

The Pirates have a diversity problem; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 5/1/16

Larry A. Silverman, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; The Pirates have a diversity problem:

"Yet, for all the team’s success on the field over the past few years, being at PNC Park on Jackie Robinson Day was a sober reminder of the one area in which the Pirates organization has failed to live up to Jackie Robinson’s hopes and dreams for baseball — diversity.

Here are the facts. According to the 2016 “Racial and Gender Report Card” by Richard Lapchick, published by the Institute for Diversity & Ethics in Sports with the support of Major League Baseball:

• Thirty of the coaches on MLB teams (10.6 percent) are African-American. The Pirates have zero African-American coaches.

• Twenty-five of the vice presidents on MLB teams (6 percent) are African-American. The Pirates have zero African-American vice presidents.

• Ninety-nine of the senior administrators on MLB teams (5.4 percent), including assistant general managers, are African-American. The Pirates employ one of those 99 (although during the off-season the league did hire away the Pirates’ African-Amercan director of player personnel, Tyrone Brooks, to head a new MLB diversity program).

• The principal owner, president, general manager and manager of the Pirates are all white, although the Pirates are hardly alone in this. There are only two African-American managers and two African-American general managers on the 30 MLB teams, and no African-American owners or CEOs.

No one is suggesting that the Pirates intentionally exclude African-Americans from on- and off-the-field leadership positions. Nevertheless, the facts do suggest that the Pirates organization must ask itself some tough questions:

Why have the Pirates lagged far behind the other 29 MLB clubs in hiring and promoting African-Americans for key leadership roles?"