Yet again, the umpires across Major League Baseball have added fuel to the instant replay fire across the country during these 2009 playoffs. The crews who worked all four League Division Series and the two League Championship Series have missed call after call at first, second, third and at home when it comes to balls and strikes.
Just because the umpires have struggled mightily this fall does not mean that instant replay should be expanded to include more of the game than it already does.
Adding instant replay to the game of baseball, America’s Past-time, was difficult to perform in the first place. Historians of the game and baseball lifers argued against instant replay because of the harm it would bring to the purity of the game. Others argued that it would lengthen an already long game (averaging 3 hours per game).
Those who were in favor of instant replay said that it should only be used for determining whether or not a batted ball is a homerun, a double, fan interference or a foul ball and nothing else. The final argument won out and instant replay has since been used in the sport at the discretion of the umpires.
With all of the wrong calls being made in the 2009 playoffs, members of the media and fans of the game have begun the discussion of possibly expanding the use of instant replay, maybe just for the playoffs, or for the entire season (from Spring Training until the final out of the Fall Classic). If you ask this fan of the game, I say no expansion of instant replay. There are other ways to make sure that the umpires make the correct calls. We will outline those methods in this post.
Increase Umpire Training
One way to improve umpiring across the game is to increase umpire training and require umpires to attend certain seminars and other meetings throughout the off-season about umpiring. In these meetings and seminars former umpires and umpires from training schools can teach the current umpires how to properly call the game. Many umpires will not go for this but it should be added to the umpires contracts once the collective bargaining agreement is decided on in the coming years.
Increase Rookie Pay
Another way to improve the calls made by umpires across the sport is to increase the pay of rookie and junior umpires. These umpires do not make much money for the season ($9,500) which forces them to hold off-season jobs to make ends meet. An umpire working at Triple-A for a 10 year period might earn $20,000 for their time and that’s it. These umpires need to be paid higher if the league wants them to take their job more seriously. In all honesty, who is going to give it their best if they are being paid peanuts? Not many people.
Hold Umpires Accountable
Just the other night (Tuesday), we saw crew chief Tim McClelland of the Yankees-Angels series, hold a post game press conference regarding some of the calls he made while umpiring third base during Game Four of the ALCS in which the Yankees won 10-1 to take a commanding 3-1 lead in the series. McClelland called Nick Swisher out at third on an appeal by the Angels saying he left the base too early on a tag play from center field when replays showed that Swisher in fact did not leave early.
Another play, where two Yankees were at third base (Jorge Posada and Robinson Cano) but neither on the bag, were both tagged out but McClelland only called one runner out when both should have been out. A third play, at second base, had a daylight pickoff play against Swisher. Swisher was ruled safe at second when replays showed that he was tagged out prior to returning to the base.
This press conference is a rarity for umpires these days but when they are held they are only held by the crew chief. So, if it is not the crew chief who makes a mistake during the game we do not get to hear from the umpire who made the bad call. Instead, we only hear from the crew chief, after he talked to the umpire in question.
We, as paying fans, should get to hear from the umpire who made the incorrect call instead of someone speaking on his behalf. We get to hear from the players, coaches, managers and front office personnel who make the team decisions and perform the plays on the field so why can’t we hear from the umpires who run the game? It is only fair that the umpires should be held accountable.
|
Jim is the creator and editor of At the Dish, Cinn City Sports, Life with Tony and Enzo and owner of JAVFreelancing. He coached baseball for five years, three at his former high school (Holy Cross in Delran, NJ) and two at prominent Division III program Rowan University in Glassboro, NJ as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator. He has worked for the Courier-Post in Cherry Hill, NJ; Metro Networks in Bala Cynwyd, PA; and was the play-by-play announcer for the Camden Riversharks of the Independent Atlantic League of Professional Baseball for two seasons (2007-2008) on Rowan Radio 89.7 WGLS-FM, the student-run radio station at Rowan University. Jim earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications and minor in Journalism from Rowan University in 2008. While in school he was the Assistant Sports Director at WGLS for two years and the Sports Director for one year. He also covered the football, baseball, softball and both basketball teams for the school newspaper 'The Whit.' Jim lives in New Jersey with his wife Nicole, sons Tony and Enzo and dog Phoebe. He can be reached at jimvassallo@mlbdrafts.com.
|
[…] changed for the 2014 season include instant replay, home plate collisions and the transfer rule. Towards the end of April, the Office of the […]