by Thom W. Conroy

Created on: April 03, 2009

The old adage "If it ain't broke don't fix it" may not be grammatically spectacular, but it does serve the purpose quite well in reference to keeping Umpires an integral part of Baseball. The societal trend that utilizes every technological improvement as a "must have" does not transfer easily to great sport of Baseball, and those who consider replay cameras as an alternative to Umpires are missing the boat in terms of rational thought. It is a certainty that Umpires make mistakes, after all they are Human, but the percentage of mistakes they make are minimal, and the impact of those mistakes is rarely considered critical to the outcome of a baseball game.

Opponents to the traditional use of Umpires in Baseball point out those mistakes as though they personally have never made one of any kind, as if to imply the expectations placed upon Umpires should be directed at perfection in an imperfect species. Every Baseball season they are new calls for officiating by the use of cameras and replay, and even more calls for the removal of the Human factor from the game. One needs question if sports fans in general have a desire to turn live sports into a larger formation of the video games they play at home, complete with getting a Mulligan if they don't like the result of an event.

The theory that newer is always better is flawed, and for any number of valid reasons. Change for the sake of change is never proven to be a correct assumption in the long run, and the same fans that are screaming for the removal of Baseball Umpires presently will be screaming to get them back should Baseball officiating go the way of technology. It seem to be a forgotten point that machines break and malfunction, and what would the Baseball fans promoting cameras and replay say to that happening in the bottom of the ninth inning of World Series Game 7 with the score tied and two outs? Could you imagine the chaos as the players on the field stood around scratching their heads as to what happens next?

Baseball Umpires are and have been for over 100 years a part of the game that are as important as the players. Umpires set the tone for the pace of the game, sportsmanship, and interpretation of rules that can never be replaced by anything less than a Human Being. A machine cannot determine the difference between a baseball slipping out of a pitchers hand and a brush back pitch. Likewise, technology cannot break up an altercation between players on the field. Baseball needs Umpires and to remove them is just another way to make the game less sport and more entertainment for the fan.

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