Well, for awhile last night I thought today’s column would be a World Series preview of the Yanks and Phils – but kudos to the Angels for extending the series, so the preview column will come out early next week. Instead, I’d like to weigh in on the subject everyone’s talking about: the state of umpiring in MLB.
As usual, I must point out that I, myself, am an official of several sports, including baseball at various levels for the past 18 years. I’m sympathetic to the demands of the job, and in general I support the notion that officials are human, mistakes are part of the game, and that too much is made of officiating errors as opposed to player/coaching errors. Having said that, the ultimate goal is to get every call right – and major league umps are failing that test BADLY this postseason. I’ve seen missed calls that I’ve never seen at ANY level before – a ball fair by a foot called foul, a runner called safe when he was TAGGED WHILE STANDING STILL OFF THE BAG, missed pickoff calls, various blown calls at first base, and floating strike zones of all shapes and sizes. This list of blown calls is too long for a SEASON, much less three weeks of ultra-important playoff games. Any self-respecting ump should be able to swallow his ego and want the RIGHT call, regardless of whether it takes technology to get that call right. So, here’s one ump’s plan to fix MLB officiating:
-Improve pay and training for minor league officials. Once upon a time, I investigated becoming a minor-league ump – but quickly ran from the idea when I discovered the working conditions: 6-8 months living essentially in a van with 1-2 other umps, getting paid poverty wages ($15-$18K) with less hope of making the majors than players have, due to the minimal turnover in the major league umpire ranks. Why would any intelligent, relatively athletic 20-25 year old jump at those conditions when they can get a college degree and make at least twice that much money (and often a lot more) straight out of college? A minor league ump should get at least $30,000. As for training, right now MLB does not control the schooling of aspiring pro umps – you must attend (and pay several thousand dollars for) one of two schools run by ex-MLB umps. Now, I have no doubt that MLB offers tips and suggestions as to what they want to see, but I am also sure that the process would be more efficient if MLB directly trained their prospective umps. Also, umps should be scouted and recruited like players are – at least to a limited degree. College-level and wood-bat-summer leagues seem an obvious starting point for that.
-Along with increased training/compensation should come increased accountability. Dale Scott has missed two calls blatantly – he should be relieved of postseason duties for the remainder of 2009. The bottom 10% of umps should be sent to the minors every season, much like what happens to underperforming players. Upon reaching 55 or 60, umps should have mandatory retirement and be used as in-season subs if they wish (Mike Emigh sent me that idea). The era of ump ‘tenure’ must end.
-At the major-league level, institute a challenge-based replay system for all on-field calls. Each manager gets one challenge for any judgment call (aside from ball/strike, we’ll get to that in a second). One may not seem like enough, but the catch is that a successful challenge doesn’t count – in other words, you can challenge as many times as you like, provided you are ALWAYS successful. This will make sure that none of the ‘bang-bang’ plays are challenged, slowing the game unnecessarily – yet it should TOTALLY eliminate the obvious misses of the past month. I also propose that rather than a ‘booth’ like the NFL, either show the play on the big screen immediately for the crew to review OR assign a dedicated replay official to make the call quickly, i.e. within 30 seconds. If it takes longer it was too close and the play stands.
-About balls and strikes – I considered a replay system here as well, but I think that would cause confusion. Instead I propose an almost complete overhaul. Traditionally the strike zone varies from ump to ump and even within a game, and I’ve seen many pitches that were clearly strikes called balls in the playoffs (and all year, of course). This is to be expected when you have humans tracking a ball at 90+ MPH and trying to discern its placement to within an inch. We now have the technology to call strikes uniformly – my proposal is to let a camera track the width of the plate and determine the horizontal plane (if a ball is inside, outside, or over the plate) – and let the umpires worry ONLY about the vertical plane. I’d even be OK with adding an ump positioned even with (i.e. directly across from) the batter, as that is the best angle to determine pitch height. That ump would receive a signal from the system if the pitch is over the plate; the ump would then call a strike based on his determination of pitch height.
Now, I’m CERTAIN that many of you are already formulating complaints – loss of the ‘human element’, over-reliance on technology, etc. Let me address those – #1 officials are NOT supposed to lend a ‘human’ element to the game – they are supposed to enforce the rules as uniformly and fairly as possible. The strike zone is a rule, explicitly laid out in the book – and if there’s a system that works better than a human positioned off-center behind a catcher, why wouldn’t we want to improve the quality of the game? As for the technology, replay is EXTENSIVELY used in other sports, sports played in far worse weather than MLB deals with (NFL specifically). The plate-camera technology is little different than what pro tennis uses to determine service faults, and it’s been in place with no apparent problems for several years. Bottom line: this is proven technology that would, once the initial resistance fades, provide positive change for the game at the highest level.
2009 will forever be remembered as the postseason of errors – mostly umpiring errors. MLB should get the focus back on the teams where it belongs. I’m very interested in your feedback on this issue.
Again, next week we’ll preview the World Series with a column early in the week (the WS starts Wednesday). Enjoy the weekend!
Dave Glass can be reached at buggyracer@verizon.net.