byco42
Senior Member
- Joined
- Sep 17, 2011
- Messages
- 16,033
First of all, nice pull, KC.
Keith Law (our favorite saber-guru) interviewed JimMcKeon yesterday, and McKeon had a couple of good ideas to improve the quality of umpires: Train ex-players to become umpires and have one central training and certification center for all MLB umpires to graduate from. Right now, they are scouted like players and offered positions in the Minor Leagues. And a lot of potentially good umpires never pursue the profession because of the low pay. Yes, it's a passion first, then a profession, but you gotta make a living, too.
As for the replay, aside from fair-foul calls that leave the park, home runs and game-ending plays, the biggest challenge will be what is and is not eligible. Catch-no-catch with runners on base? A mess to unravel either way. An umpire has the power to award bases on his own judgement, but how will he unravel a no-catch turned catch that clears a bases-full, no-out situation? Obstruction? Interference? Balks not called? Batter in or out of the box? Check swings? Hit-batsmen? Dropped third strikes? Leaving the baseline? Runners being hit with batted balls? Multiple situations in the same play? Base appeals, especially in the very rare fourth-out situations? What and what not?
The article mentions that managers could determine when to ask for a replay, but that would also preclude that they cannot argue any other disputed calls for any reason, right?
Here's an interesting twist, umpire Ken Burkhart got this call right, in Game 1 of the 1970 WS, for the wrong reason:
Hendricks tags Carbo with glove and ball is in his hand. Carbo misses the plate. Burkhart (in perfect position) signals "out" but he never saw the tag. Replay would have upheld the call because Carbo never touches home and technically gives himself up as soon as he returns to the dugout.
Keith Law (our favorite saber-guru) interviewed JimMcKeon yesterday, and McKeon had a couple of good ideas to improve the quality of umpires: Train ex-players to become umpires and have one central training and certification center for all MLB umpires to graduate from. Right now, they are scouted like players and offered positions in the Minor Leagues. And a lot of potentially good umpires never pursue the profession because of the low pay. Yes, it's a passion first, then a profession, but you gotta make a living, too.
As for the replay, aside from fair-foul calls that leave the park, home runs and game-ending plays, the biggest challenge will be what is and is not eligible. Catch-no-catch with runners on base? A mess to unravel either way. An umpire has the power to award bases on his own judgement, but how will he unravel a no-catch turned catch that clears a bases-full, no-out situation? Obstruction? Interference? Balks not called? Batter in or out of the box? Check swings? Hit-batsmen? Dropped third strikes? Leaving the baseline? Runners being hit with batted balls? Multiple situations in the same play? Base appeals, especially in the very rare fourth-out situations? What and what not?
The article mentions that managers could determine when to ask for a replay, but that would also preclude that they cannot argue any other disputed calls for any reason, right?
Here's an interesting twist, umpire Ken Burkhart got this call right, in Game 1 of the 1970 WS, for the wrong reason:
Hendricks tags Carbo with glove and ball is in his hand. Carbo misses the plate. Burkhart (in perfect position) signals "out" but he never saw the tag. Replay would have upheld the call because Carbo never touches home and technically gives himself up as soon as he returns to the dugout.
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