There was an excellent article by Bill Madden in today's New York Daily News about the poor quality of the umpiring in major league baseball. The problem has existed for quite a while but it gets a lot of attention when bad calls occur in the playoffs. In game 2 of the American League Division Series (ALDS) at Yankee Stadium, the left field umpire called Joe Mauer's fair fly ball down the left field line foul even though he was only about 20 feet from the play. It was clearly fair as all Yankee fans would admit. The replays left no doubt.
Mr. Madden commented on the amorphous strike zone and horrendous calls in the field that have people calling for instant replay reviews that commissioner Bud Selig adamantly opposes. Madden says that umpires for playoff games are still chosen based on politics rather than merit. Umpires are rated by their supervisors but why bother if no one ever gets demoted or kept out of playoff games for poor ratings. He points out problems about poor training, working conditions and pay in the minor leagues. Umpires in rookie leagues get paid only $1,900 a month and the highest paid at Triple A makes only $3,200 which amounts to $16,000 for 5 months of work. (According to a 2007 article on mlb.com, major league umps start at about $120,000 and make up to $350,000.) There are also few chances to advance to the majors because incompetent umps are not demoted and few retire until they are physically unable to work. How do you attract good candidates for a tough job under these conditions?
I'm in favor of a limited number of replay reviews per game on questionable umpire decisions (like the bad call on Mauer noted above), in addition to the existing rule allowing teams to appeal calls by umpires on home runs. As I pointed out in my Dumb Baseball Rule post of May 27th, the object should be to get the call right. Major League umpires are paid well. If their ego gets bruised by being shown up by an instant replay, that's too bad. Hopefully, with properly trained and supervised umpires, replays will make them look good.
My dumb rule post addressed a scoring rule rather than an umpiring decision - the scoring rule that you can't anticipate a double play. In yesterday's Dodger-Philly game with runners on first and second, Chase Utley made a terrible throw attempting to complete what should have been an easy DP. He only got charged with an error because the runner on 2nd scored as a result of his throw. If that runner had held up at third, no error would have been charged even though Utley's throw allowed the batter to reach first. My post also addressed the "team error" concept which could have applied in yesterday's Yankee-Angels game when the shortstop and 3rd baseman let a routine infield pop drop between them that either could have handled. The scorer probably should have charged the shortstop with the error but instead scored it a hit which resulted in an earned run charged to the pitcher. The team error concept would help scorers who don't have the guts to make the right call or, when it is not clear who should have caught a catchable ball, to give the team the error rather than penalize the pitcher.
I was talking about these matters with good friend and former St. John's University pitcher Larry Mushinske this morning. (Larry got to pitch in the 1966 College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska and won a game with 3 scoreless innings of relief. SJU only has 6 wins combined in all their CWS appearances.) In addition to discussing the horrible umpiring - including a pitch way inside to Russell Martin that should have been ball 4 in yesterday's Dodger game - he pointed out that the umpires almost never exercise their discretion to allow a runner to score from first base on a ground rule double when the runner would clearly have scored if the ball hadn't gone into the stands. He's absolutely right, as he almost always is on baseball matters - a true student of the game. I've seen cases where a fast runner on first was held at third by the umpire, even though there were 2 outs and a full count on the batter, so that the runner was going on the pitch. The ump took the easy way out. Maybe better trained umps would have the confidence to make these tougher calls.
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