To the disbelief of Diamondback fans, umpire Paul Nauert called the stray ball a strike, ending the ballgame. The next pitch, a 90-mph cutter thrown toward the right-handed batter’s box, landed significantly outside the strike zone. Wade Davis, the Rockies closer, got ahead with a 1-2 count on slugger Nick Ahmed. The Rockies were up 6-5 in the ninth, but Arizona, with two outs and two on base, was threatening a comeback. Right after the 2018 All-Star break, the Colorado Rockies and Arizona Diamondbacks met at Chase Field for an important National League game. Blown calls only undermine the integrity of the game, slow down pace, hurt averages, and prevent the athletes from being able to maximize their potential performance. Titles such as worst ball, strike, and check-swing calls in baseball history to the biggest umpire blunders of all time have gained wide viewer attention. Watching these uploads has turned into a sport itself. YouTube is flooded with videos of bad umpires in action. Some of these flubbed calls were game changing. In 2018, MLB umpires made 34,294 incorrect ball and strike calls for an average of 14 per game or 1.6 per inning. This human element of the game adds color but it comes at a high cost: too many mistakes. Currently umpires carry out this important role without technical assistance. The home plate umpire exerts the most influence in the game, making judgment calls on any pitch that is not hit. To minimize the chance of undue influence, these game assignments are not publicly announced until 10 to 20 minutes prior to each scheduled start. A crew of four umpires is assigned for each game, assuming one of four designated field positions (except for the World Series, when seven umps are used). Each season, umpires individually participate in an average of 112 games, one-fourth of them (28) from behind home plate, calling about 4,200 pitches. For 2018, there were 89 MLB umpires, all of them with a profile of male, average age of 46, and 13 years of experience. It is a mentally and physically demanding job. The duty of an umpire is complex: get the split-second call right. At a time of autonomous cars and machine learning, MLB needs to embrace useful change. That’s 14 per game.īut throughout its history, MLB has protected its error-prone umpires, resisted adopting strong performance measurements, and not taken advantage of available technology that could better the game. In 2018, umpires made 34,294 incorrect ball and strike calls.
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