Noah Syndergaard was stunned. So was the partisan New York Mets crowd, many of which had barely settled in from the journey to Flushing, Queens. “Thor” had been tossed by young umpire Adam Hamari, an out into the home third inning, for throwing behind Chase Utley. A purpose pitch no doubt, as New York sought to send some semblance of a message to their current Dodgers and previous Phillies torturer. Worthy of ejection? Surely not. Hamari made a snap decision, a wrong one, misusing the power of the umpire while doing what every official in sports strives not to do: become the story. With the main attraction out, the crowd booed, broadcasters pondered and the Mets, without their ace, never had a chance, losing on 9-1 on a late-May holiday evening.
The opposite occurred in the second inning of the Tuesday night match-up between Kansas City and Baltimore. Yordano Ventura threw way inside to Baltimore’s Manny Machado, who took exception to the location and delivered a cold stare and a few choice words for the hurler. There was no warning from home plate umpire Manny Gonzalez. In his next at-bat, the volatile Ventura, who does have a reputation for throwing at players, drilled the O’s third baseman with a 99mph fastball, leading to a bench-clearing brawl. Gonzalez’ failure to read the game and take action in the second inning led to a later incident that caused a major brawl and potential injuries.
Yes, a few rule changes from Major League Baseball could provide more clarity on the self-policing of the sport, but for now, in both instances, umpires ruled different ways in somewhat similar situations and failed to control one of the remaining parts of the game that are not subject to replay challenges, frustrating fans, players and managers.
Calling balls and strikes is another part of the game where umpires still exercise ultimate authority over. It’s arguably the most vital role they perform, but as we continue to see and share strange calls, respect for the umpires role is lagging, while the technology that no longer makes that job indispensable continues to gain steam.
Baseball’s brass consistently seek improvement to the game via rule changes and razor sharp tech, so you can’t help but wonder if one day in the not-so-distant future, MLB would start considering going the whole hog, that is, minimizing umpires role in calling a game from behind the plate.
This is, of course, light years from the position umpires once held inside the Grand Old Game, a very long way from “God” the nickname used by National League players to describe Doug Harvey, the Hall of Fame umpire who presided over 4000 games between 1962 and 1992, commanding ultimate respect of most players, coaches and managers. “Doug Harvey was the model that every umpire should strive to be,” said Hall of Fame second baseman Joe Morgan in 2010. “He was tolerant to a point, yet the players always knew he was in control.”
Now control is something umpires enjoy less and less of, and without the absolute power over the management of the on-field game they once enjoyed, how can they continue to command the respect and the authority they once enjoyed?
We’re talking about a crew of umpires who now routinely watch their work undermined as managers and even fellow umpires challenge each others calls. Night after night, umpires have the privilege of watching themselves, in ultra HD, botch a call in front of the baseball world, all while wearing oversized headphones, which makes an already bad look that much worse. Heading into Wednesday, managers have seen 219 of their 466 challenges overturned: that’s 47%, while umps have gone to the MLB video hub in New York to overturn 38% over their own calls.
Are we heading towards the extinction of the umpire as we know it? Actually, the umpires, who have always had something of an uneasy relationship within the sport have seen their powers deteriorate for some time.
In 1999 the umpires lost leverage by resigning as a group in a failed attempt at strong-arming MLB during labor negotiations. That same year, NL and AL crews, which were totally separate and generally had their own ideas of the strike zone, were unified under the Commissioner of Baseball as league offices were closed. Big brother arrived in 2001 with QuesTec, a pitch monitoring system installed in several stadiums in MLB’s bid to standardize the strike zone. Upgrades of the system were collectively bargained into the umpires contract, which could eventually lead to their losing control over the pate.
It may seem far-fetched to some, but close to real-time data is already available via the current pitch tracking system, PITCHf/x, which comes in slightly delayed to MLB.com’s Gameday service but that provides pitch-by-pitch game information and is extremely accurate: better than one mile per hour and one inch. If they can do that now, surely real-time balls and strikes are close, a move that would push umpires to a distant periphery once unimaginable.
Of course, if you listen to former umpire Harry Wendelstadt, who died in 2012, technology won’t help either.
If they did get a machine to replace us, you know what would happen to it? Why, the players would bust it to pieces every time it ruled against them. They’d clobber it with a bat.
Video of the week
Cheslor Cuthbert of the Kansas City Royals must have been surprised when Baltimore Orioles second baseman Jonathan Schoop wailed a baseball directly into his elbow on Monday. Schoop was trying to hold up on releasing the ball, but instead provided Cuthbert with a contusion on his funny bone. KC’s skipper and Captain Obvious Ned Yost said without a hint of irony that “I have never seen anything like that in all my years.”
Quote of the week
The catcher goes 0-4 and puts down 200 fingers a night. What’s more important? The decisions you make with those 200 or those four at-bats?
That’s reasonable analysis from Baltimore Orioles manager Buck Showalter, and much sounder logic than blaming his team’s recent spate of strikeouts in Houston on bright LED lighting.
Who’s closer to victory: Donald Trump or the Cubs?
Teflon Trump continues to slide towards the White House despite speech transgression No3,234. His controversial comments directed towards US District Judge Gonzalo Curiel prompted Speaker Paul Ryan to call the remarks “the textbook definition of a racist comment”. And then said he would still vote for him.
Meanwhile, the Cubs, are on pace to tie the record 116 wins of the 2001 World Series winning Seattle Mariners after chalking up win No40 on Monday, which apparently allows them to wear these NBA style warm-ups in a bizarre video with bad music without any repercussions ... for now.
Suit game strong. 💪https://t.co/dAocrdCPyr
— #VoteCubs (@Cubs) June 6, 2016
How did the kids piss off Goose Gossage this week?
If the Goose was annoyed by Machado taking exception to inside pitching in that second inning of Tuesday’s game, then Ventura is his hero for paying him back for such atrocities. Ventura drilled Machado with 99mph of beanball, and the O’s infielder responded with a right hand that approached Rougned Odor territory. Score one for unwritten rules.
Nine thoughts in order
1) Madison Bumgarner wants to be in the Home Run Derby at the upcoming All-Star Game festivities in San Diego. That makes a whole lot of sense, because when pitchers do big things with the bat it’s always a sight to see. So how about this: grant him entry, and then add another pitcher to boot!
That’s right, two pitchers should go face-to-face in the first round of the bracket format that got rave reviews last season. That guarantees a pitcher makes it into the second round and would pile on the pressure onto whoever they face in round two. Who else is in?
2) Prince Fielder is an enormous problem in Texas, and management are running out of ideas about what to do with the DH who is hitting under .200 and earning $24m. With Fielder set to earn another $96m from 2017 to 2020, of which the Rangers will assume a staggering $72m (the Tigers are picking up $6m a year), it’s no wonder that Arlington-based brass are up for just about anything to get him going. They rested the dormant slugger for a pair of games over the weekend, much to Fielder’s chagrin, and when he returned on Monday they dropped him to sixth in the lineup and stuck him back at first base where he was a regular until the 2014 season (Fielder accumulated an awful -17.4 defensive WAR after debuting in 2005).
Prince’s performance dropoff has folks in Dallas comparing him to his father Cecil, another jumbo-sized ballplayer who started to fade right around the age of 32, and another Texas-sized bust in Chan Ho Park (five years, $65m, 22 wins). At the moment, first-place Texas can afford to experiment with Fielder because they’ve scored the third most runs in the AL, but should their output slow down, manager Jeff Bannister will be forced to put him on the bench for an extended period, a previously unfathomable move, considering his salary.
3) Regardless of how much MLB pushes their entry draft for amateur players, it will never match the sizzle of comparable NFL and NBA events. The league has done a better job at getting their draft on the radar in past seasons, but baseball doesn’t enjoy similar popularity on the college level to basketball and football, and because NFL and NBA drafts address more immediate needs, the MLB event will always be a lesser event. It doesn’t help that fans won’t see most selected players on the big-league level for several seasons, if ever. Draftees are a bit like having your mom stash your birthday presents in the attic, not knowing if they’re even going to work when you bring them down years later.
Having said, that, Pirates fans are about to see what they have in No2 overall pick Jameson Taillon, who they’ve been waiting impatiently for since his selection in 2010. The Buccos passed on Manny Machado for the Texas-born righty who suffered through Tommy John surgery and a hernia procedure, and were fired up for his debut, much in the way the baseball world cowed around Dodgers 19-year-old Julio Urias two weeks ago. The Buccos no4 prospect went six innings and allowed three runs while walking two and striking out three.
4) Some news organizations called the Miami Marlins breaking the news of Muhammad Ali’s death a “scoop”, but I can think of a few different adjectives to describe the team’s decision to put a tribute up on their scoreboard some two hours before the word came in.
5) Bad taste doesn’t begin to describe that decision, one made by one of the most distrusted organizations in sports. It does describe Miami’s outfield decor to a tee. The New York Mets’ Noah Syndergaard, (and those on Mars when the roof is open), took notice before heading out of town.
Adios Miami. I think your outfield sculpture burnt a hole in my corneas. pic.twitter.com/hwuSd2TLgv
— Noah Syndergaard (@Noahsyndergaard) June 6, 2016
6) The Rays, freed from their tight lease to Tropicana Field (it expires in 2027) are open to any and all innovative ideas. The team that has made basement budgets work and who also brought us the modern shift have asked their architect to toss out any pre-conceived ideas about what today’s ballpark is, and will ask fans to send in their zaniest thoughts on what they’d like to see in a new stadium. The prevailing thought is to open the space more to fans during games and on off days, while waterslides, spas, tickets that aren’t limited to specific seats and using ballpark kitchens as a culinary institute have been listed as potential ideas. Mostly the Rays angle is designed to make a space that has the public more in mind, and that’s vital, because Florida is a hostile environment for publicly-funded sporting venues, and constructing a new ballpark in the area with public dollars remains a tough ask.
7) While the spotlight is shining brightly on the Golden State Warriors’ Klay Thompson, his brother Trayce is not-so-quietly proving himself worthy of a regular place in the Dodgers outfield. The 25-year-old arrived in LA as part of the offseason three-way deal between the White Sox and Reds, and has already hit 10 home runs, including his second walk-off blast of the season on Tuesday night against the Colorado Rockies.
8) Felix Hernandez is donning blond corn rows and a walking boot, thanks to a strained right calf that landed the Seattle Mariners ace on the disabled list. Calf injuries can be tough to shake, so the King will wear a boot for two to three days to ensure it doesn’t get any worse. “I’m going crazy right now,” he said. “I don’t know what to do. I’m not used to this,” which probably explains why he let his daughter dye and braid his hair.
9) And finally, a Red Sox and Giants get-together is one of the rarer baseball events possible. Both teams are well over a century old, and yet these ballclubs have now met a mere 14 times since interleague play began in 1997. Before the AL and NL began regular meetings, their last match-up was during the 1912 World Series (the Sox won 4-3 with one tie due to darkness). An even rarer event is the Sox David Ortiz vs those poor Piñatas.
