Adventures in Umpiring and Writing About It

It’s getting to the point now where writing about baseball umpiring and instant replay is getting pretty boring. (For all your aspiring baseball bloggers at home, that is how you sell the introduction of a post.) What else is left to say? Umpires make mistakes, they should have the ability to fix them—as current, they are only able to fix and review a small portion of the calls they make. This is unfortunate. Most of us want this to change. Reasonable people may disagree on how such change would go about being implemented, but it seems to be generally accepted that something needs to be done, and soon. For those of you who don’t see it that way, who enjoy mistakes and flawed outcomes and the human element—this post is not for you. I can’t spare another second arguing with you. I’ve been doing that for a while now. You are exhausting. Why are you so exhausting? Just agree with me already.

This subject has returned to the baseball public’s consciousness due to a couple of recent and publicized incidents. You may have read all about them. There was Dale Scott and the foul ball that was, and then wasn’t. This lead to a triple-play, because of course it did. Then there was Larry Vanover and the five balls that were three strikes, ending a game between the division rival Red Sox and Rays. Two umpiring mistakes, two affected games, two bummers for everyone all around. Unless you’re a Dodgers or Rays fan. It’s worth pointing out that we do not necessarily blame these umpires as individuals, that we are accepting of human mistakes, that they happen, that it’s the system currently in place that we take umbrage with—but you already knew that. We’ve all argued about umpires and replay and the injustice of the world for a while, and it is my contention that umpires should be utilizing technology to the fullest extent in order to ensure correct and fair rulings on any given play in any given game. Imagine the chaos of the players and players alone determining the outcomes of baseball games. But this has all been written and read about before. What I’ve been sensing and seeing around the internet, in light of these recent developments, is a certain fatigue about the reaction against umpiring mistakes and the subsequent need for expanded replay. Sure, most of us are walking on the side of light, but goodness, can’t we be quiet about it already? The wheels of progress move slow, that is to be certain, and yelling and complaining about the pace isn’t doing anyone any favors. Mistakes happen, people are human, we should just accept this and move on. Stop banging our heads against the wall. That shit hurts.

I sympathize, I really do. Like I mentioned before, I’m kind of boring myself as I write this. It’s a tired subject and for good reason. However, the complaining is important. The blog posts are important. Every time a perfect game gets bungled or a fly ball gets called an out when it wasn’t, the over-saturation and faux outrage serve a purpose  Not only is this the only outlet that we have as dissatisfied and disenchanted fans, but it’s the only way anything is ever going to get done. Baseball is a slow, old dinosaur, and that doesn’t even account for the slow and old dinosaur who currently serves as its commissioner. Bug Selig moves slow, is what I’m saying. Unless, of course, he sees a big bag of money, then he’s really much faster than seems possible for a man of his age. Expanding replay will take effort, and money—Bud Selig and baseball do not like exerting effort or spending money unless it begets more money. This is the way it goes. And so, that is why we must yell a bit when a game gets decided by a mistake—why we have to overreact and concoct crazy hypotheticals and call for teams to petition in protest. Why we have to leave long-winded comments on articles and repost painful replays. It’s annoying, and tiring, but it’s all we have, and the only people who get listened to are the loud ones. So holler, my friends, holler for a little while longer. I’ll put up with you if you’ll put up with me.

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Kyle writes baseball nonsense at The Trance of Waiting. You can follow him on Twitter @AgainstKyle.