| Joey Votto says umpiring is as good as he's ever seen. (US Press Wire) |
KANSAS CITY -- Over and over, commissioner Bud Selig has said the people he talks to don’t want an expansion of instant replay, noting baseball officials, owners, managers, general managers and umpires. When I asked him Tuesday about the fans' call for more replay, he said he hears some -- usually in the immediate aftermath of a blown call or a perceived blown call -- but also just as much from fans who don’t want more. Despite what many comments sections tell you, those people do exist. And some of them are players.
During this week’s All-Star festivities, I talked to several players and had a hard time finding anyone who wanted widespread expansion of instant replay. And again, that’s not to say those don’t exist. Several players and managers have come out in support of more replay this season. It’s just that the small sample I spoke to in Kansas City weren’t in favor of more, even if it meant more calls were made correctly. The time-consuming nature of the replays as they stand now was the greatest concern, while an empathy for umpires and the job they do was also cited.
Reds right fielder Jay Bruce went about as far as any of the players I spoke to, saying, “it should be advanced a little bit.” Selig and Joe Torre mentioned on Tuesday that MLB is looking into an expansion of replay for fair-foul calls in the outfield and also trapped balls, but the technology needs to be advanced before it could be implemented on a full-time basis.
One thing the players did nearly unanimously say was they believe umpires, in general, do a very difficult job well. You’d expect to hear that though, at least publicly. Players association executive director Michael Weiner said most players would like to see more accountability for umpires.
"Evaluation, discipline, the word that players use most frequently is accountability," said Weiner. "Players understand they are accountable, a player has a good game, he gets credit, a player has seven good games in a row he gets credit and then he has one bad game and he's accountable for that. He blew a game, he blew a game. They think umpires should be the same way.”
Weiner added that when an umpire does admit he blew a call, especially publicly as in the case of Jim Joyce’s botched call that cost Armando Gallaraga a perfect game two years ago, that umpire will gain respect of the player.
Braves second baseman Dan Uggla said most umpires are good about telling a player they blew a call -- even if it’s a day later after they’ve seen the tape. That, he noted, goes a long way for respect. He also said he’ll tell an umpire when he feels he was wrong about a disputed call that video showed the umpire got right.
“That tells me he’s taking his job seriously and he wants to get better, he doesn’t want to miss that pitch,” Uggla said. “More times than not, they’re right. They have a better view than we do. You can’t help if you think a ball is a strike, you can’t help but to get a little excited about it.”
Dodgers starter Clayton Kershaw said he'd worry about replay upsetting his rhythm as a pitcher, but noted one low-tech change he'd like to see -- automatic appeals to the base umpires on check swings.
"That’s just one of those things that‘s so hard for the home plate umpire to see unless it’s completely obvious," Kershaw said. "I don’t think it’s hard to check every time."
Orioles catcher Matt Wieters said often he’ll think an umpire has a consistent zone when he’s behind the plate, even if he doesn’t when he’s batting -- and it has nothing to do with the actual calls, it’s his own perspective.
“You go through times where you don’t feel good where the zone looks huge or the zone looks really small,” Wieters sad. “Hitting, you’re going through different stretches where it appears different. Catching it’s pretty much the same.”
Perhaps the biggest difference in umpiring is how we see it -- with High Definition TV, more TV camera angles, Pitch F/X, TV broadcasts of every game and even a 24-hour-a-day TV network dedicated to baseball, every bad call gets blown up, so there seems like there are more than ever. When there was just one or two nationally televised games a week, we didn’t see the pivitol call in every game and second-guess the umpire.
“I have found that the umpiring in general is the best I’ve ever seen. A lot of people complain about it, but it’s also because our game is difficult and at times they make a mistake and it costs you a pitch, it doesn’t cost you an at-bat, It’ll cost you a pitch or two,” said Reds first baseman Joey Votto. “I was talking to an umpire, and I won’t mention his name, but he said, we can put you in a hole, but we can’t get you out. I heard a quote from Dick Allen, who said, ‘an umpire has never gotten me out.’
"In the past I’d gripe about it or complain about it to myself, my teammate or an umpire and I’ve learned it’s a lot closer than you think. You just have to make the most of every opportunity and most importantly the field is even. It’s not like one guy is getting everything and the other guy nothing. If there’s a mistake here, there’s a mistake there. I think that’s important fo people to think about and keep perspective on it.”
Votto also said he wasn’t for any more instant replay for a very important reason: “Our games are too long in general,” he said. Expanded replay could extend games and cut into valuable time -- “it could make me miss dinner reservations,” he said. Which, it was noted, are important.
“The most important,” he said.
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