That is false. It doesn’t work that way at all. In fact, umpires ARE chosen for postsason play based on performance. However, there’s a limit as to how much a given umpire can work; if I recall correctly, an ump cannot work two consecutive World Series, and cannot work more than two playoff series in the same year. So in fact the best-graded umps can work quite a lot of playoffs but not all of them, while the lowest-graded umps can be excluded from the postseason entirely. It is not a strict rotation.
As to the issue,
I’m surprised to be saying this, but I agree.
I don’t want baseball turned into the exhausting grind of a football or basketball game with endless delays - I’d like to see the game moved a bit faster, in fact - but “it’s just part of the game” is a shitty reason to allow such horrific calls. Cuzzi’s call was abominable, and the Twins should be allowed some sort of limited appeal process to have it reversed.
A baseball game should be decided by the PLAYERS, not the umps, to the greatest extent that can possibly be arranged. Baseball is not about umpires.
Why not have a system whereby a manager can appeal two plays per game, plus a third appeal added if extra innings are reached? Just put some limitations on it:
A manager must appeal a call immediately after the play is made,
The appeal cannot be of a normal ball/strike call,
The appeal cannot be of a rules dispute (there’s already a process for that),
The appeal succeeds only if an instant replay official can clearly, unambiguously determine, in less than sixty seconds, that the call should be reversed, as in fact would have been the case with the blown call in the Twins-Yankees games, and
While the call can be changed by the instant replay official it is the job of the umpiring crew chief to remedy the situation. (This would have been easy with the Cuzzi call; you just put Mauer at second, since the play should have been an automatic double.)
If you control this well, not only will you keep delays to a minimum, but you might actually speed up the game because managers will be less likely to spend time arguing (not that they do a lot of that.) And you’ll get more calls right, and that’s worth it.
The cameras picked up Twins in the dugout describing with their hands how the ball was a foot inside the line. Gardenhire may not have gone out to argue but the Twins knew the call was blown and they were saying so.
I imagine that NFL replay decisions often suffer from the same problems that Rugby replays do - a mass of bodies involved in the play, so the official has to review a dozen different views before a decision can be made. Baseball would seem to be more similar to cricket - where the television review is being used with a good deal of success, although in a limited way, as only run outs, stumping, boundaries and grounded catches are eligible for review by the umpires. And it is normally quick and easy…
This is not true. It’s not even possible to see that play from the Twins dugout. The “reaction shots” shown on ESPN were taken well after the play during a pitching change, after Cabrera had a chance to watch the play in the clubhouse.
So the umpire makes the calls, and those are final, even if they can be clearly proven to be incorrect. That’s a lot of power.
I’m not a big baseball fan, but the idea of one person having that much power seems like you are just setting yourselves up for a huge debacle later, when an unscrupulous ump gets paid to make calls to fix the game.
The thing is, isn’t not really that much power. As far as I know there hasn’t been a serious allegation that an umpire has fixed a game in a hundred years and – how many games? A hundred thousand? It would be extraordinarily difficult for an umpire to throw a game for a team – there are very few game-deciding close calls. Even an ump crookedly calling balls and strikes would have trouble changing the results significantly without being extraordinarily obvious about it – not a few disputable calls here and there, but dozens over 9 innings, and even then it would impossible for them to deliver a win. Hits will still be hits.
I just read most of the SMDB football threads this morning, and the whole “the refs are making my team lose!” thing is extraordinarily tiresome.
Nit-pick: Outfield umps in the post-season are also there to make catch/no-catch and home run calls.
Not that this particular call wasn’t blown, and not that Passan doesn’t otherwise make some good points… but his argument is undermined when his rant includes statements that are factually untrue.
I don’t buy the arguement that it would slow down the game. There just aren’t that many close calls during a game to do so. Maybe 1-2 per game but more commonly none.
Look at a sport like tennis that uses it exclusively multiple times during a match. It works great, it’s quick, doesn’t slow down the game, and keeps the game fair.
The terrible thing is, I’m not even sure if that was the worst call that umpire made in that game. There was another play at first where the first baseman had to jump to catch a poor throw, but clearly got his foot down before the runner reached base. I mean, it wasn’t even close: it was clear at full speed.
Agreed. My cousin called me after that game and told me that the umpire had to have been paid off. (!?)
I was incredulous. Do you think that the gamblers paid off the left field foul line umpire? I guess they were lucky that the ball wasn’t hit down the right field foul line, huh? Or that he didn’t hit a clear home run.
“Well, they must have paid them all off”, he tell me.
Okay, so gamblers got to and paid off 6 umpires, each of whom are making six digit salaries, and they all agreed to throw a game to the favored team who everyone already believed would with the series in a walk to begin with?
He laughs and tells me I have so much to learn. I hang up on him.
Even if these are the “best” umpires, there are somewhere around (30 teams = 15 games, 4 umps a game=) 60 umpires, and the “top” (4 series x 6 umps=)24 umpires. So it’s not like we’re dealing with the top 3 percentile here.
