Post by Fish Troll on Sept 10, 2007 22:18:26 GMT -5
On Tuesday, Atlanta Braves third baseman Chipper Jones, following a close loss to the Philadelphia Phillies, spared no feelings when talking about the present quality of major-league umpiring. Specifically, it was the inconsistent ball-strike calls that raised his ire.
"The first pitch to me with the bases loaded was in my batter's box, inside," Jones sniffed to reporters after the game. "Now you tell me how I'm supposed to hit that. We have to get QuesTec here in this ballpark. We've got to. Umpires have got to be held accountable. That's Little League World Series stuff right there."
He wasn't done. "It's a joke," Jones said. "I'm tired of it. And baseball can fine me whatever they want. I do not care. Somebody's got to say something. I've got more walks than strikeouts in my career — I know what a strike looks like."
Jones' mood was no doubt soured by the fact that his Braves lost a crucial game in excruciating fashion. However, on a larger level Jones is spot on: the quality of home-plate umpiring these days is simply not acceptable. As such, it's time for sweeping changes. Specifically, it's time — past time, actually — to automate the calling of balls and strikes.
Here's the thing: the game of baseball, on a fundamental level, is about the strike zone. All of it — the home runs, the strikeouts, the bunt singles, the walks, the groundball double plays — flows from each hitter's and each pitcher's ability to command the strike zone. When that zone is called inconsistently, it corrupts the competitive integrity of the game. That's what's happening now, and that's what's been happening for a long time in baseball.
This isn't meant to be a jeremiad against umpires — in most phases of the game they do an exceptional job. Rather, it's an acknowledgment of the fact that they're human and, hence, encumbered by human limitations. After all, it's nigh impossible for a mere mortal to assess with any degree of accuracy where a 90 mph pitch, often breaking laterally and downward, crosses a given point (i.e., home plate) several feet in front of him. With the technology we have at our disposal these days (e.g., the center-field camera, pitch-tracking systems), it's become painfully obvious just how often these calls are screwed up. It's time to change that.
For several seasons, the QuesTec system has been tracking ball-strike calls and keeping record of how often umpires correctly identify those balls and strikes. QuesTec is now in use in half of all major-league parks, and MLB badly needs to take this a step further. That means giving the job of calling balls and strikes, part and parcel, to the computers.
Such a drastic move will require time and R&D on the part of MLB and QuesTec and concessions on the part of the umpire's union, but it's all plainly worth it. When you take into account all the human errors, the (patently silly) practice of giving veteran pitchers and hitters all the borderline calls and the recent suggestion that umpires tend to accommodate pitchers of the same race, there's no reason not to make the switch. To put a finer point on it, watch any major-league game and ask yourself whether, say, 25 percent of the ball-strike calls look incorrect after replay or imaging. Over the course of an entire game, it adds up, and that level of inaccuracy makes a mockery of the game.
It bears repeating: the time for change is now.
No doubt, those resistant to such measures will meow about the loss of the nebulous "human element." Such arguments serve only to enable the current, hapless state of affairs. Besides, there's no reason that, in an aesthetic sense, the game need change at all. You'd still have your home-plate umpire suited up and in his usual position (he'd still be needed to make safe-out, fair-foul, balk and catcher/batter-interference calls), and he'd still be making the ball-strike calls, at least visually. He'd have the computer calls relayed to him by a wireless indicator, and then he'd relay those calls with his typical flair. The only difference is that those calls would be made with a level of accuracy that would put even the best umpire to shame. To the fan in the stands and on the sofa, everything looks the same. As well, there's no loss of the cherished "human element" at any of the other umpire positions. In other words, everybody wins.
The foundation of sports is fairness, and without a ruthlessly consistent strike zone baseball simply isn't fair. With all the talk about steroids and competitive imbalance and the like, something as mundane and taken-for-granted as the strike zone isn't likely to inspire much in the way of activism. But it should. It's time for baseball to repair itself at the most basic level: take ball-strike calls out of the hands of umpires.
"The first pitch to me with the bases loaded was in my batter's box, inside," Jones sniffed to reporters after the game. "Now you tell me how I'm supposed to hit that. We have to get QuesTec here in this ballpark. We've got to. Umpires have got to be held accountable. That's Little League World Series stuff right there."
He wasn't done. "It's a joke," Jones said. "I'm tired of it. And baseball can fine me whatever they want. I do not care. Somebody's got to say something. I've got more walks than strikeouts in my career — I know what a strike looks like."
Jones' mood was no doubt soured by the fact that his Braves lost a crucial game in excruciating fashion. However, on a larger level Jones is spot on: the quality of home-plate umpiring these days is simply not acceptable. As such, it's time for sweeping changes. Specifically, it's time — past time, actually — to automate the calling of balls and strikes.
Here's the thing: the game of baseball, on a fundamental level, is about the strike zone. All of it — the home runs, the strikeouts, the bunt singles, the walks, the groundball double plays — flows from each hitter's and each pitcher's ability to command the strike zone. When that zone is called inconsistently, it corrupts the competitive integrity of the game. That's what's happening now, and that's what's been happening for a long time in baseball.
This isn't meant to be a jeremiad against umpires — in most phases of the game they do an exceptional job. Rather, it's an acknowledgment of the fact that they're human and, hence, encumbered by human limitations. After all, it's nigh impossible for a mere mortal to assess with any degree of accuracy where a 90 mph pitch, often breaking laterally and downward, crosses a given point (i.e., home plate) several feet in front of him. With the technology we have at our disposal these days (e.g., the center-field camera, pitch-tracking systems), it's become painfully obvious just how often these calls are screwed up. It's time to change that.
For several seasons, the QuesTec system has been tracking ball-strike calls and keeping record of how often umpires correctly identify those balls and strikes. QuesTec is now in use in half of all major-league parks, and MLB badly needs to take this a step further. That means giving the job of calling balls and strikes, part and parcel, to the computers.
Such a drastic move will require time and R&D on the part of MLB and QuesTec and concessions on the part of the umpire's union, but it's all plainly worth it. When you take into account all the human errors, the (patently silly) practice of giving veteran pitchers and hitters all the borderline calls and the recent suggestion that umpires tend to accommodate pitchers of the same race, there's no reason not to make the switch. To put a finer point on it, watch any major-league game and ask yourself whether, say, 25 percent of the ball-strike calls look incorrect after replay or imaging. Over the course of an entire game, it adds up, and that level of inaccuracy makes a mockery of the game.
It bears repeating: the time for change is now.
No doubt, those resistant to such measures will meow about the loss of the nebulous "human element." Such arguments serve only to enable the current, hapless state of affairs. Besides, there's no reason that, in an aesthetic sense, the game need change at all. You'd still have your home-plate umpire suited up and in his usual position (he'd still be needed to make safe-out, fair-foul, balk and catcher/batter-interference calls), and he'd still be making the ball-strike calls, at least visually. He'd have the computer calls relayed to him by a wireless indicator, and then he'd relay those calls with his typical flair. The only difference is that those calls would be made with a level of accuracy that would put even the best umpire to shame. To the fan in the stands and on the sofa, everything looks the same. As well, there's no loss of the cherished "human element" at any of the other umpire positions. In other words, everybody wins.
The foundation of sports is fairness, and without a ruthlessly consistent strike zone baseball simply isn't fair. With all the talk about steroids and competitive imbalance and the like, something as mundane and taken-for-granted as the strike zone isn't likely to inspire much in the way of activism. But it should. It's time for baseball to repair itself at the most basic level: take ball-strike calls out of the hands of umpires.
msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/7198014
There has been time when Umpire do a terrible job calling the game.
