Are you Smarter than an Umpire?

I thought long and hard, and by long and hard I mean I had a brief passing thought but decided against it, to adding what I am about to say to the end of my previous post. While they share a common thread, the ever pressing issue of bad calls made by MLB Umpires, my previous blog was more my own personal rantings of one particular game, where as the issue as a whole deserves it's own spotligt on my wonderful blog that I'm sure no one is actually reading.

It's an age-old issue, should Major League Baseball rely on the use of Instant Replay in more aspects of the game? For the first time in history, America's Favorite Pastime actually allowed the use of this "new" technology during the 2009 season however it was limited to questionable home run calls. For any of us who are true baseball fans, we know that there are a lot more calls that are just as important other than home runs that happen a lot more often. I believe it's rare that a home run call is questionable which is exactly why I am okay with MLB using Instant Replay in this case. It doesn't happen very often so it really isn't going to extend games or mess with the purity of the game. However, if MLB were to expand the Instant Replay to the multiple plays on the bases that happen every day ranging from "caught stealing" to leaving the bag early to close plays at home plate, I then will be upset and truly feel that the purity of the game is being tainted. It honestly could just get ridiculous. It may start with the few examples I mentioned above, but then what? Will they start using it on check swings? Balls and strikes? "Oh he went around, no he didn't, let's check instant replay!" "That was a ball, no it wasn't, ok let's check the instant replay using the strike zone tracker (name changes depending on what chanel is broadcasting the game)" That's just not how baseball works. In the words of Ernie Harwell "Baseball is a spirited race of man against man, reflex against reflex. A game of inches. Every skill is measured. Every heroic, every failing is seen and cheered, or booed. And then becomes a statistic." While Harwell is most likely talking about the players, I believe that the "failing" part can apply to the umpires as well. That's what baseball is about folks. It's the only way we can keep the purity of the game alive.
Now onto the part about the umpires. Peope are campaigning for Instant Replay because of a pathetic display by the umpires in the 2009 post season. The most recent of these included 3 bad calls during game 4 of the ALCS which you can read about in my previous blog. While none of these calls truly affected the end result of this particular game, I do understand people's concern as this is a possibility in the future. HOWEVER! Based on my previous paragraph, you can tell that I am not a fan of any expansion with Instant Replay in baseball. If the problem is the umpires, then, light bulb, the problem is the *gasp* UMPIRES! I haven't done any research on how to become an umpire so unfortunately (for myself but probably fortunately for anyone reading this) I can't elaborate too much, but I think we need to chase the problem to the root of it all, how umpires get to the majors. Instead of Instant Replay, do what needs to be done to make sure only the best of the best get to the majors, and earn your "stripes" to get to ump a post season game! Even if you're already a well respected umpire, if you make a big mistake in a game or more than one big mistake in a game, there should be some sort of punishment or probation. I found an atricle How to Become an Umpire that says umpires must make their way through the farm system much like the players. If a player is slumping, they get benched, right? If an umpire seems to be messing up a lot of calls, make him go back to school, or at least make him watch High School Musical and get some tips from the Wildcats like "Get Your Head in the Game"
 
So in summary, MLB doesn't need Instant Replay, they just need to send their umpires back to school. In the words of Jeff Foxworthy "It's not about how smart you are, it's about how dumb you've become" or something along those lines.