by Charles Seltman

Created on: September 18, 2010

Asking if we really need baseball umpires is akin to asking if we could run a justice system without judges, or an airport without air traffic controllers.  Yes, umpires do occasionally make a wrong call, but consider the alternative: Eliminate umpires and baseball would no longer be a time honored game but, instead, a chaotic contest involving undependable electronics.  Of course, someone would still have to evaluate the electronic sensors and TV replay monitors to decide the outcome of a play. And what would happen to the manager who lost out on a play and irately kicked dirt on the instant replay equipment?

Years ago, before childhood was organized, kids would start a pickup ball game and the session usually deteriorated rather quickly into arguments involving ground rules, fair, foul,  balls, strikes  and safe or out. That is the nature of games without officials.  It is doubtful if adults or TV sponsors would pay money to witness or sponsor such a childish spectacle.  

Baseball involves exercising split second judgment.  Batters must decide whether to swing at or take a pitch.  A base runner’s success is a judgment based upon a nanosecond glimpse of distance, the ball, the field, and the abilities and positions of the opposing players.   The player’s judgments along with his physical abilities are what make his career.  An umpire’s knowledge, judgment and physical abilities bring necessary expertise and controls to the game that electronics would never achieve.

Baseball is a game of time-honored tradition.  At the major league level, that tradition is seldom tampered with.  The decision to raise or lower the pitching mound caused endless controversy, as did one league’s introduction of the designated hitter.  The aluminum versus wooden bat debate still rages on and few players today wear their pants correctly which bothers many traditionalists.  Imagine the uproar that would ensue if computers and “eyes in the sky” replaced umpires.  Additionally, it’s easier to blame the umpire for a  wrongly called game ending third strike than to admit that a favorite player wasn’t up to the task at the plate and left the winning run stranded at third. 

Sports at any level are about humans competing and competition requires judgment and regulation which is best administered by a trained official and not an “iUmp” or some other gadget.  Many years ago a player asked an umpire if a pitch was a ball or strike and the umpire, Augie Donatelli, I believe, replied, “It ain’t nothin’ ‘til I call it.” That’s the essence of the game and that’s the way it should stay.

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