Why MLB Needs to Eliminate Human Umpires

Firstly, a disclaimer: if you are such a closed-minded traditionalist that you would prefer to see a game decided by an umpire’s blown call rather than a fair, consistent, undisputable outcome to Major League Baseball games (for a change), then please read no further.  Such traditionalists are surely disillusioned by the following rule changes which have already been made by MLB:

-Prior to 1857, games were not 9 innings, but ended when the winning team scored “21 aces”.  What a change that surely has many purists seething!

-Before 1858 there were no called strikes.  The purists must hate the faster pace of the game!

-In 1880 a walk was 8 balls – even Kyle Drabek could have kept his walks down

-Prior to 1887 a batter could request a “high or low” pitch – baseball in its purist form!

-Prior to 1893, one side of a hitter’s bat could be flat – I can’t believe they went back to round bats. (from majorleagueblogging.com)

This article is for the rest of us, who want to see baseball played “the right way” and games decided in a fair manner, regardless of the reputations of star players, teams playing, or the location of the game.

How many times are we watching a baseball game, and a pitch that is well off the plate is called a strike, or a pitch which should obviously be a strike is called a ball?  It happens every single game.  What the casual fan may not realize is the consequence each of these “little mistakes” can carry with it.  A 2-0 count in most cases leads to a fastball that the batter is expecting and can tee-off on.  Conversely, being behind in the count puts a hitter in a defensive mind set; reducing the chances of him driving the ball.  We may see on the highlight shows a clip of an upper deck grand slam that wins a game, but very seldomly is any attention paid to the count - the situation which led to the home run - which is heavily influenced by the individual pitch calls made by human umpires.

Now let’s slow down for a minute and talk about a subject that really annoys me.  When Derek Jeter or Bobby Abreu are batting, doesn’t it always seem that they get the benefit of a generous call from the home plate umpire?  Jeter does his little “jump out of the way” on a pitch easily over the plate and because of that and his reputation the ball is “inside”.  When I was at the game on Saturday, Roy Halladay was getting strike calls on pitches 8 inches outside.  Conversely in the ninth inning of a one-run game, full count situation with two outs, Jon Rauch throws a change up down the heart of the plate that even Leslie Nielson in The Naked Gun would have called a strike.  Well, this one was called a ball, and an RBI single, a confrontation, and a torn shirt later, the Phillies have a two run lead and Rauch is ejected (see photo).  As a Blue Jays fan, it is particularly hard to take, as virtually no visit to Fenway Park or Yankee Stadium ends without an obvious, game-deciding botched call in the favour of the home team.  Are the umpires trying to screw up like this?  Are they intimidated by their surroundings?  Are they corrupt?  Or are they just not good enough at their jobs?  I don’t know the answers to these questions.

Lets give the umpires the benefit of the doubt and assume that they are trying their best and just make mistakes.  If we estimate that 250 pitches are thrown in a game, it’s impossible for a human to get them all right.  Yet the mistakes can and often do change the outcome of the game.  As I write, Jose Bautista just got called out on a knuckle ball clearly outside with a runner in scoring position and two outs.  Who knows what would have happened had the umpire got it right?

This stuff really bugs me because I love to see a good competition.  I want to see who can win a match-up between pitcher and hitter, with all things being fair.  I want to see who’s going to win a baseball game when both teams have equal opportunity, without one team being granted an extra out to work with in an inning or an out taken away from them like was Bautista’s case in the preceding paragraph.

So where do we start?  What is the best way to allow for the game of baseball to be officiated more fairly?  We need to start with the strike zone.  Technology is being used on virtually all television stations to show “whether the umpire got it right” – a rectangular box displayed at the point the ball crosses home plate (called K-Zone, Pitch Trax, among other things).  When a borderline pitch is tested on Pitch Trax against the umpires call, the umpire gets it wrong about half the time.  This is human error that a computer would not be susceptible to making.  Major League Baseball should replace home plate umpires with Pitch Trax computers immediately to remove the unpredictability, inconsistency, and unfairness associated with the frequent mistakes on balls and strikes currently being made every day by human umpires.

The next step is improving the calls on close plays at home plate or second base when a steal takes place.  It seems the umpires just take a random guess most of the time about whether the runner is safe or out.  The technology of today may not be sophisticated enough to automatically make accurate rulings in situations such as this, but I am hopeful that it will be in the near future.  In the mean time might I suggest it would be prudent for MLB to hire younger umpires, who are in good physical condition, so that at least they can get into proper position to make calls rather than a lot of the current umpires who are not “physically equipped” to do anything but waddle around and make bad calls.

At the end of the day, I sympathize with the traditionalists out there.  When it comes to hockey, I am the last one who wants to see some of the proposed rule changes such as larger nets to increase scoring, or 4-on-4 overtime in the playoffs.  But when it comes to something like replacing umpires in baseball with computers, I would much rather throw tradition out the window if it will mean a more equal, fair, and better product.