Help B/R Lead Writer Dan Levy save baseball—from robots!

Baseball fans frustrated over bad calls have long clamored for robot umps. But B/R National Lead Writer Dan Levy has a warning: Be careful what you wish for. In “Rise of the Robot Umpires,” the cyborgs are taking over baseball. That is, unless you step in and save the day! You can do that a couple of times.

“Rise of the Robot Umpires” is a graphic-style novel that won’t be written as narrative fiction, but will take the form of essays, columns and news stories by real-life sportswriters. I’ll tell you in the spirit of full disclosure that I’ve agreed to be one of those sportswriters.

The way you can save baseball is by helping get “Rise of the Robot Umpires” on its feet. Levy has launched a Kickstarter in the hope of raising $17,500 to pay for printing, fund the illustrations and pay the writers.

The lead illustrator is Stephen Slesinski, whose work you might know from the FX network show Archer. That’s his work at the top of this post.

If enough money is raised, the book will be produced and you’ll really get a chance to save baseball. That’s because you, the reader, will decide what happens.

“I was always a bit of a control freak as a kid,” Levy says, “and probably now. So it’s no wonder that the popular Choose Your Own Adventure books of the 1980s became my go-to reading as a kid. And I still love them.” Now Levy reads those books to his daughter.

“For nearly a decade now I’ve tried to come up with an adult version of those books,” Levy says, “something that puts the story in the hands, eyes and minds of the reader.”

The Kickstarter continues through the early morning of May 12. Check it out. You might just save baseball.