Major League Umpires have always been sort of above the law. Sure, they made mistakes from time to time but, in general, the Umps were always right. Sort of like the sheriff. You might not like him but, don’t question his work.
Well, the times they are a changing and MLB Umpires are coming under fire for bad calls like never before. Why, sports writers are even coming out downright critical of these guys who are supposed to be keeping order on the baseball field.
To be fair, the umps still do get the vast majority of their calls right and no one wants to replace them with machines, however, in recent days, there have been some incidents that make one wonder…
The Umps are held to impossibly high standards. Making a call on a split-second play with the dust flying and tempers raging cannot be an easy job. Every call they make is open to criticism and scrutiny, if not on the spot, then the next morning in the newspaper. It must be tough at times for the Umps to keep their cool.
Lately we have had some legitimate questions about competence and credibility concerning MLB umpires and the Commissioner’s office has had to issue statements admitting that their Umps made incorrect calls… two days in a row.
Fieldin Culbreth was suspended two games for his mis-handling of a pitching change. It was a rule that most kids interested in baseball know by heart, but, somehow, the entire crew of umpires got it wrong. Even when the Astros manager came out of the dugout to inform them that they were breaking a hard and fast rule, they ignored him and called out “play ball.”
Worse yet is the case of Umpire Angel Hernandez who called a home run back and then, even after watching the replay on the monitor… you guessed it, he still got it wrong.
Coaches, players and managers are called upon to explain their actions after almost every game. Umpires don’t. The Umps must be held accountable for what they do out on the playing field, just like everyone else. When Culbreth was asked for an explanation he replied, “all matters concerning protests are handled through the league office.”
Concerning the curious call from Hernandez, fans wondered, “What could he possibly have been looking at?” “Or was it just that it was the ninth inning, and he didn’t want extra innings?”
