Baseball Season Over, Umpires Strike Out
By Mike Botta
As lovers and haters of the NY Yankees prepare to verbally assault one another from now until Opening Day 2010, a real battle surely is shaping up this off season in the executive suite at Major League Baseball: When, how and to what extent to replace umpires with new technology.
Never before have umpires performed as poorly as they did during the post season this year. A baseball clearly landing in fair territory but ruled foul. A runner incorrectly called out for leaving third base too soon after tagging up on a fly-out. Multiple players cheated out of hits by bad umpire calls. Balls called strikes, strikes called balls, and on and on.
Even the Purists Are Crying Foul
It’s not just the media sports critics. Ask the casual baseball fan and he or she will tell you that the quality of umpiring this post-season was the worst ever. In fact, it was so bad that even baseball purists started to call for the use of instant replays to help umpires make proper calls, and for the first time in history an instant replay was used to overturn a home run call.
What’s going on? Should umpire schools be given failing grades for turning out incompetent graduates? No. Only the most veteran umps were used during the World Series and they still got numerous calls wrong game after game.
Time to Adopt the New Technology
Fact is, baseball and the umpires have finally fallen victim to the wonders of technology. Today, unlike 20, 10, five or even one or two years ago, we’re treated to game telecasts that use incredibly sophisticated technology.
Networks place dozens of high-definition cameras around the stadiums to give multiple angles on every play. Viewers at home are watching the games on 52- and 60-inch high-definition TVs that provide crystal clear images.
Fans and Players Deserve Better
Gone are the days when the most sophisticated technology used on TV was a radar gun positioned behind home plate to judge the speed of each pitch. Now, Fox and TBS display boxes on screen that reveal whether pitches are strikes or balls. An informal and unscientific estimate by this writer says that umpires called only 60-percent of the balls and strikes accurately. Maybe that estimate is too high.
Unlike most businesses, baseball has been much too slow in adopting new technology. Sure it’s a sensitive issue, especially to the umps. After all, their livelihoods are at stake.
But, it’s no different from what happened in every business from steel mills to distribution centers to banks. As technological innovation took hold at most businesses in recent years, companies and personnel adjusted to take full advantage of the technology.
Wake Up or Lose The Game
Sure, good employees found themselves on the short end of the technological stick, but companies recognized the need to either embrace the technology or lose ground to competitors.
Not baseball. Long after the NFL adopted rules and guidelines for the acceptable use of instant replays to help referees get the calls right, baseball only agreed to experiment with the concept on a very limited basis, i.e., to help umps resolve home run disputes.
Unfortunately, this year the technology has not only caught up to, but far surpassed the abilities of the human umpires.
In the off-season, while Yankees lovers and haters duke it out in offices, bars and on radio talk shows nationwide, look for Major League Baseball to finally take a serious look at the use of technology. Of course, the minds behind the game will likely move at a snail’s pace which isn’t good for the game. But, at least the talking will begin.
A Few Tech Suggestions for MLB
In the meantime, here are some suggestions from a lifelong – and very happy – fan of the game and the World Champion NY Yankees:
- Keep the use of replays to determine the accuracy of home run calls
- Offer each dugout the right to challenge two umpire calls per game in the field
- Team requesting challenge loses one out for each call upheld by umps
- Allow umpires to use replay at any time at their discretion
- Use technology to determine strikes/balls
- Place home plate umpire behind pitcher
- Umpire behind pitcher still calls swinging strikes, foul tips, etc.
Of course the argument then becomes how to keep already lengthy games from becoming excruciatingly long. Solution: Find a way to limit time between pitches.
You may not agree with the introduction of technology to help umpires make the right calls on the field, but if you think the public outcry over missed calls is bad now, wait to see what happens when 3D TV is introduced a few short years form now.