FanNation | Tim's Bloggity Blog | Baseball

Baseball is America's pastime. Some people would argue that America loves football. I would have to agree with them, I do love football. But baseball has been entwined in American society ever since its humble beginnings in the late 1800s. The original set of 20 rules was written by Alexander Cartwright in 1845. Throughout the games history the game has endured many rule changes and expansions but it is still the same game. Although the rules changed and expanded the game has stayed the same; a pitchers throws to the batter who tries to put the ball in play and the defense tries to get him out. The last major rule change came in 1973 when the American League adopted the designated hitter to bat in place of the pitcher. The game has always been officiated by umpires. At the major league level there are always 4 umpires on the field. The umpires are supposed to know the rules of the game and have been given the power to regulate and control all aspects of the game. I am currently an umpire in Harford County Maryland where I umpire ballgames with people from ages 9 - 50. I have done every level of ball and I am hoping to one day get the chance to umpire at the major league level. The idea has been going around lately and many people are calling for video replay of all calls made by the umpires. I think that using replay in Major League Baseball is utterly absurd and should never be allowed to happen. This past offseason the MLB adopted a rule where the umpires could use video replay to review all home run calls. I think that this is the only legitimate time for replay. Sometimes it is very hard to tell if a ball did actually stay fair or did actually make it over the wall. I think that the home run is one of the only things that should be allowed to be reviewed by video replay. Throughout the history of the game, umpires have been given the task of managing and regulating the game. The umpires are human and they are going to make mistakes. Fair/foul, ball/strike, and safe/out are all judgment calls that can only be made by the umpires and in the Official Rulebook it says that judgment calls cannot be disputed. How many times do you see a manager or a player arguing with an umpire over a call that is made on the field? It also states in the rule book that any person who argues balls and strikes shall be automatically ejected from the game. The umpires provide a lot of leeway and give the players a lot of slack when they argue balls and strikes. If they followed the letter of the law ejections per game would go through the roof. These ballplayers need to stop whining and play the game the way it was meant to be played. Many people feel that we should adopt the QuesTec system to make call on balls and strikes. This is absurd, this would eliminate the need for a home plate umpire and it would take away all of human element that makes the game great. By eliminating the human error in baseball the game will become too perfect and we will lose many of the memorable stories that baseball is made of. We would never have Don Denkingers blown call at first base in the 1985 World Series. We would never have plays at the plate that could be decided by a coin flip. Whether the ump makes the right call or he blows it (and in almost all of the cases they make the right call) people will be talking about the call for days. People still talk about the controversial call in the 1996 ALCS where 12 year old Jeffrey Maier reached out and stole a ball from Orioles outfielder Tony Torasco. This was clearly spectator interference and the umpired rule in favor of the Yankees. The Yankees went on to rule the baseball world for the next 4 years and the Orioles have been bottom dwellers ever since. Just last night in the A's - Orioles game the umpire with a 1-2 count called the third strike to A's hitter Jack Cust. What happened next was beyond me; Cust stepped back into the box with a "1-3" count and was rung up on Strike 4. I thought this was just another example of how umpires make the game of baseball great. Without the errors that the umpires make baseball would not be the game that it is today. Replay would only ruin the game and completely overrun the game with machines. Human error is what makes the game great and we should do whatever we can to keep humans in control of the game that we know and love today.

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May 6, 2008 02:45 PM ET

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I doubt any serious baseball fan would ever consider eliminating the human element in the game. Replacing Umpires seems to me like some nightmare out of a scifi novel. No one in their right mind would want the outcome of a game decided by a computer. Even something as basic as calling balls and strikes benefits more from a human calling it than a computer as long as the human is consistant. Afterall, batters come in all shapes and sizes and what is a strike to a tall batter may not be a strike to a shorter batter and so on. The fact that batters and pitchers must familiarize themselves with the different strike zones of different umpires is part of the game too. They learn as the game progresses what the umpire will call a strike and what he won't, and as long as it's consistant then there shouldn't be a problem in a perfect world. More often than not, it's the inconsistant call that annoys players the most. When a ball in the exact same location is a strike for one team and not for another, I can understand the frustration. Or even if there is no obvious bias towards one team, if balls and strikes are not consistant may make it difficult for a player to measure the strike zone.

Still, we don't live in a perfect world and umpires are only human and make mistakes or commit inconsistancies. Where I disagree with you is that in your blog you imply that blown calls or inconsistant calls should be passively accepted as part of the game too. It is certainly inevitable that there will be blown or inconsistant calls. Expecting the players and the fans to accept them and not complain about it is just absurd. In today's moneyball environment, we want players, managers, and fans to get upset when they genuinely feel that they are victims of a blown or inconsistant call. We want to see passion, fury, desire, and the whole nine yards so unless the player / manager is completely irrational in arguing a call, I don't mind seeing them dispute with the umpire such things as the location of a pitch or whether they were safe or out. That too is part of the game. The rules are what they are, but that doesn't mean the players should act like mindless zombies when they strike out looking on a full count. If they thought that pitch was a ball, then I would rather see them voice their opinion. The umpire doesn't have to like it. He can even throw the player out of the game if he crosses the line, but I feel that that should be reserved only if the player crosses the line by getting physical or disrespecting the umpire using foul language or personal insults (which should not be tolerated).

Arguing a call is also part of the human element of the game. It's what a player has to do when he feels there was a blown or inconsistant call. It may not change the call or alter the outcome of the game, but it also let's fans know that they care, and whether or not the umpire made the right call, the umpire has to tolerate it to a certain degree as long as it doesn't cross a line.

I applaud the fact that you are an umpire. I hope you get to the MLB someday.

Jack