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A simple umpiring solution E-mail
Written by Pat Lackey   
Wednesday, 21 October 2009 10:14

There's no denying that the umpiring has been bad this postseason. The "human element" defense of bad calls is complete BS; men that aren't playing be able to affect the outcome of a baseball game by being bad at their jobs. Something needs to be done. But what?

A challenge system like football wouldn't work in baseball. Football coaches are constantly in contact with other coaches that can view replays and tell them if a play merits challenging, and most coaches still miss on more than half their challenges. Setting up a similar system in baseball, where managers generally don't have staff in a box reviewing plays, wouldn't work.

What I think would work is a system more like hockey. Expand each umpiring crew by one with the extra member being an unseen man in the press box or in the van with the TV crew that has access to all of the cameras that make up the TV feed and the replays. Keep him in constant communication with the home plate ump or crew chief via a Bluetooth headset, and use him like a fifth (or seventh, in the playoffs) ump. Team appeals a runner leaving early at third? Ask the guy in the van. It can work the other way, too. The guy in the van sees that two runners were tagged out and the ump only called one? He can tell the ump with the headset what happened. Keep the same rules as football; the guy in the van has to signal there's a problem before the next pitch or play moves on. If this guy is working in between plays, there won't be nearly as much downtime as people expect.

What's the worst that could happen here? It does end up being time intensive and it has to be ditched? At least we'd working towards a solution instead of insisting that a broken model doesn't need fixed.


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Comments (11)add comment

Hank said:

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I like the idea of an all-seeing tv guy watching over the umps. And preseason baseball would be a perfect place to test it out.

But I don't know if blown calls or poor officiating worsen the entertainment value of sports, nor do they give a continuous advantage to one side. A team is just as likely to have a bad call in their favor as against them. Much like the ball taking an unfavorable bounce, a poor call can occur at anytime and to anyone.

But going back to the entertainment value, we remember blown calls. Sportswriters, radio hosts, fans, we discuss and argue, lament and smile over blown calls. They add another layer of discourse and stay with us long after the game is over. A loss can be blamed on a wrong call, a player or team's ability defended or attacked based on unnatural aid. If an ump does a perfect job, calls a perfect game (which is the norm), there is nothing memorable about that perfection. And it is a rather dull topic of conversation for sports discourse.
One of the most entertaining sports, football, even with it's booth reviews and instant replays and challenges, still has some of the most egregious calls, largely because of how its rules are setup. When the whistle is blown, the play is dead. So a wrong call can be deemed unreviewable, even if everyone, including the refs know otherwise.
And yet the game still entertains, and those poor calls, stay locked in our memories. When Hochuli botched the fumble by Cutler last year, it became media fodder and internet forum subjects the entire season, even adding weight to the final charger-bronco game.
Whether it is some internal fairness gauge, something in us as fans gets really, really riled up about sports when we see a blown call. The few poor performances by umps could be worth it when looking at the increased passion fans gain from their mistakes.
 
October 21, 2009
Votes: +0

w.k. kortas said:

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My suggestion, made about a decade and a half ago, to fix the problem with post-season umpiring by asking Subway and Taco Bell to ban Eric Gregg didn't seem to be a final solution.
 
October 21, 2009
Votes: +0

TFW said:

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I think that you have presented a good solution. I think that hockey does a good job of having the "all seeing" ref. I would definitely support MLB trying that out in the pre-season.
 
October 21, 2009 | url
Votes: +0

JerryG said:

It's a good simple solution.
The kind that baseball usually doesn't enact. I doubt we'll see anything like this.
 
October 21, 2009
Votes: +0

MDBuc said:

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It seems like there would be a danger of increased stall tactics every time there was a close play. The pitcher spending extra time wandering around after a call goes against his team or the batter stepping out in the reverse. Not to menion an increase of manager's argument.

I say this is likely since I know I would employ these tactics if I were a manager and it might get a call over turned and give my team a better chance to win.
 
October 21, 2009
Votes: +0

whygavs said:

Well
They could always actually enforce the time limits between pitches that are on the books.
 
October 21, 2009 | url
Votes: +0

-K- said:

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The call on Swisher for leaving too early was clearly a make-up call for the botched pick-off call at second.
 
October 21, 2009
Votes: +0

azibuck said:

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I think Swisher was called out on his upper body movement. He looked pretty awkward, like, twisting his body and getting the locomotive started, before his foot left the bag. It's reasonable to think that's what the ump saw while not directly looking at his foot.

I agree about the hockey idea. One of the few things the NHL got right. I wish the NFL would do that. They can keep the challenge idea just to keep the reviews to a minimum, but instead of having the ref buzzed and stand outside the peep booth for 5 minutes being told what he's about to see, just let the other guy handle it, and tell the ref what to change, if anything.
 
October 21, 2009
Votes: +1

scsteve said:

Hey, I know you...you're Boog Powell!
Did I hear Jerry Layne, the HP umpire tell Mike Sciosia that he couldn't see well enough on the inside pitches? Wait a minute...It's your job to get your ass in a position to see the indside pitches! Gimme a break. Send all these bonehead umpires down to A ball for a month.
 
October 22, 2009
Votes: +0

bucdaddy said:

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I know umps miss calls all the time -- if memory serves, THT did a pitch FX thing once to show where the REAL strike zone is and in passing mentioned the amazing stat that something like 5% of pitches right down the heart of the plate were called balls -- but the two McClelland missed seem especially egregious because in both cases he apparently was not looking at the base. If he's looking at "upper bodies" and not seeing a guy is on or off the base when he is or isn't ... just, how can he not? This isn't a judgment call or rules interpretation. This is an ump looking in the wrong place, twice, so he's not seeing what's directly in front of him. Maybe there needs to be more rigorous ump evaluating going on, though I'm sure they'd tell us their evaluations are as rigorous as can be.

Please, baseball should not emulate the NFL. It takes those guys a five-minute huddle and a look at replay* to make an offside call, they're all looking over their shoulders.

*--I know offsides isn't subject to review, I'm being facetious.
 
October 22, 2009
Votes: +0

azibuck said:

he can't looks two places
He has to look at the catch, which is farther from him, and rely on peripheral vision to see if he left early. McClelland's error was in positioning (no hustle at all on the play), not in where he was looking. He should have had the catch and the runner completely in his forward field of vision. He didn't.
 
October 22, 2009
Votes: +0

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