Over Reaction?

By now we've probably seen/heard about the call made at the end of last night's Pirates vs. Braves game, and we've likely already came to some conclusions on what we think the call should have been. With that said I'll only briefly cover that part.

Hit and Missed

For those of you who don't know or need a refresher, here's how it all went down. First, this play should not have even been made an issue if the Pirates catcher, Michael MnKenry, had simply made more solid contact with Julio Lugo. It was not really a potential collision, so he wasn't it eminent danger, and this isn't like the second base foot swipe that we see so often. This is home plate! In that situation your job is to guard it and make sure that the runner doesn't score. That's the first gripe that baseball fans, and especially Pirates fans, should have about the play.

Michael McKenry (left) swipes at Julio Lugo at home plate. (AP Photo/John Amis)

Now in a game like this where two teams have been battling for hours, 6 hours and 39 minutes to be exact, you hate to see the umpires become the deciding factor, especially in a controversial way. But let's break down the tag itself. Everyone's instinct reaction is that Lugo is out by a mile because the catcher had the ball a good 6 feet ahead of the runner, so we assume he's out. However, the tag must be applied. I've already expressed my opinion on the tagging effort.

Jerry Meals, the home-plate umpire, was in the correct position to make the call. What he saw was that the glove swiped at but missed the leg of Lugo. I have yet to see any video that gives a definitive answer as to whether he was out. The angles are either from too high up or the tag is obscured by something else. There is no doubt that it was close however.

I, myself, am torn on this issue. My instincts say that he had to be out because of how close it was and that an umpire's call shouldn't dictate the outcome of a game. However, Jerry Meals was closer than 99.9% of all the people in the world. But I'll leave this pointless banter to much better people than myself.

The Real Issues


I believe that what's really hitting people hard about this is all the other issues that it brings up. So, I'm going to go over some of the grumblings that I've seen.

Worst Call Ever? Not so much.

Many remember Jim Joyce (right) blowing a perfect game (AP)

Some are debating whether this is now the worst call ever made, most citing the previous being Jim Joyce's blown call that ruined Armando Galarraga's perfect game. I'd have to heavily disagree. I actually have great respect for Jim Joyce and how he handled that unfortunate situation, but he also had a much clearer call. So, I'll kill two birds with one stone with this. You can easily see that Joyce's call was wrong, it's indisputable, unlike Meals which is obviously disputable.

Also, let's look at the impact of the calls. Both were deciding factors on a game, one way or another. Joyce's call took away a historic feat. Galarraga would have joined only 20 other players in baseball history with perfect games. The Pirates wouldn't even have been guaranteed the win, and even if they did win, it would have been a small drop in the bucket of an entire season.

I know some of you might think, "But they're trying to turn things around," and, "It could take away their chances in the NL Central." Really? This one game should not destroy their season. They have played well this year, no doubt. It's refreshing to see them competing instead of hanging out in the cellar, but this is 1 of 162 games in the regular season. Let's not forget that officials in every major sport, unfortunately, miss calls all the time. While I hate to keep things against Jim Joyce, his call still remains the worst.


The Role of Umpires

Umpires "do work."

This is one of the other issues raised by people. I myself had a brief stint of umpiring for a small K-12 kind of league. That experience, while brief and not always pleasant, gave me a new perspective on what umpires have to go through. They are involved in every single minute thing that happens on the field and they are asked to be perfect, and they are certainly close. I don't know how much the umpires are getting paid in the Major Leagues, but I doubt it's what they deserve. With that said, there are certainly some who can create some concern for this statement, but I don't think either Jim Joyce or Jerry Meals is one of them.

I learned how umpires get into position to make the numerous and difficult calls that they do, and I experienced having to make those calls in a split second. You have to go with your gut and what you saw on the field. This really isn't any different than what officials do in other sports, except the number and sometimes severity of the calls are far greater in baseball.

Some people are calling for Bud Selig to suspend umpires for missing calls similar to Jerry Meals's call. This is ridiculous. Not only for the reasons I cited above, but because there is no intent on the umpire's part to cause harm or "screw somebody over." That just doesn't make sense. And I hope that people are joking when they question whether Meals had somewhere to be at 2 A.M. or that he had money riding on the game. I'm not naive enough to think that officials betting on games isn't a possibility, but it doesn't make much sense. While they may have the rare ability to affect the outcome of a game, like in the cases mentioned above, there are way to many variable for them to risk their jobs over it. I don't know how much money they would expect to get from the bet, but I doubt it's worth not only the money from their job but also the enjoyment and satisfaction that they get from doing it.

Replay

This is NOT what we need.

This has been a hot button topic for a couple of years now, and quite frankly I don't entirely like the home run replay already in affect. Part of the reason is that we still don't always get a definitive answer even when we do have replay. Replay was used yesterday in the Cardinals vs. Astros game. Albert Pujols hit a ball that hit the top of the padded wall and then bounced off the concrete behind it to count for home run. It's not entirely clear whether this was the case, but the umpires stuck with their original call that it was a home run.

The point can be argued either way, but in the end it was not indisputable evidence to be overturned. That's a term that I like. I'm not sure if it applies to Major League Baseball's rule for replay, but the Nation Football League has that right. If it can't be overturned by video evidence then it shouldn't be. The initial call should stick if it can't be seen as wrong. Innocent until proven guilty ring any bells? Same idea here. The umpires can't be wrong until they are proven wrong.

Umpires try to get the play right.

As I mentioned before, umpires are right a whole lot more than they are wrong. So, shouldn't we give them the benefit of the doubt? However, replay is already done for home runs. That probably won't change. However, I'm hesitant to give replay over to plays at the plate and the like. The premise is similar to the home run, each call is the difference between runs being scored or not, but the same issues still exist as to whether it's truly helping to get the call right. Which I understand. Getting the call right is important and good, but I'm perfectly fine with the umpires having a quick meeting to get each other's thoughts and that's it. (An underused privilege by MLB umpires in my opinion)

However, this is a human game that's played, coached, managed, called, officiated, and bought for by humans. I'd prefer to keep it that way.