Umpires - The Life and Thoughts of Zach
Sep. 13th, 2005
11:53 am - Umpires
One thing is clear from the opening statements of John Roberts' confirmation hearing.
Republicans don't watch baseball.
"Umpires don't make the rules; they apply them."
Have any of the Republicans repeating this talking point looked at the strike zone over the last 50 years? Or how about how often fielders making a double play actually make physical contact with second base? I'm sure bigger baseball fans than myself could name a dozen more rules that Umpires traditionally bend or broadly reinterpret.
A consensus of umpires over time subtly changes the rules, while retaining their spirit, in order to keep the game enjoyable in the face of changing styles of play. Umpires operate on a combination of written rules and a constantly evolving professional baseball tradition.
Touche!
Maybe my understanding of the motivation of the umpires is wrong. I'm not a super baseball geek. I had the impression in my head that the strike zone was (silently) moved in order to keep the game interesting and maybe even to make life on the pitchers a little easier. It's a response to the ongoing tug of war between pitching and batting skills. Maybe if there's a huge new pitching innovation that comes into play that makes pitchers far superior to batters they will change the strike zone again to favor batters.
All the more reason that Judges shouldn't be like Umpires! They'd just be in the pockets of the fat cats running the show.
And yes, I think the entire game 5 years ago was focused on Home Run Contests. It's just started inching the other way, but slowly.
Was this a statement of how things have worked in the past, or of how things are "supposed" to work? I'd bet the latter. And I'd bet that the former wouldn't be seen (by the politicians) as a desired goal, but rather as a corruption of the game.
The strike zone is currently about 1-2 feet lower and 1-2 feet smaller than it is in the rule book. It has been evolving towards this over the past few decades and this is based on a silent consensus of umpires and the leagues have made no attempts to correct it. There are two reasons for this: 1) The pitching is too now fast for humans to really be able to perceive it accurately, catchers can sometimes fool the ump into thinking the ball was somewhere it wasn't by moving the glove quickly after they catch the ball. 2) If the balls were pitched up where they are supposed to be (between the letters and the knees rather than between the waist and the calves) they would be MUCH easier to hit and the game would turn into a home-run-a-thon which would be BORING BORING BORING.
I don't know what is up with the sweeping tags of second base but the players expect it and it makes for dramatic plays and no one seems to mind because both teams get to do it.
I think it is quite reasonable for the umps to do what they do.
I don't think this is actually a good strong analogy for what judges should do. I'm not trying to make a point about judges. I'm trying to make a point about Umpires and Republicans. My point is that Umpires and Judges are totally different creatures and the analogies between them are bound to get people in trouble.
I was saying that the politicians would likely say that umpires aren't legally allowed* to overlook the rules in an effort to change the game (even for the better). I suspect that they would say that the if the rules need changed to improve the game, then the rules should be changed, and that the actions of an umpire to deliberately not follow the rules is bad for the game because it corrupts it, and creates an uneven (and more subjective) playing field.
I also suspect thet they would say the exact same thing about judges.
* As I said earlier, I don't know baseball, but I'm guessing that umpires are, according to the written rules of baseball, charged with enforcing those rules, and not given the power to selectively overlook those rules for the betterment of the game. If this guess is wrong, then yeah, the republicans are out to lunch on the analogy. :)
now I get to tell my umpire / judge joke!
a baseball player asks three different umpires, "Ump, how do you tell which pitches are balls and which are strikes?"
The first umpire says, "Well, son, I just call 'em as I see em."
The second umpire says, "I guess I just call 'em as they are."
The third one squints, spits some tobacco and says,
"Kid - they ain't nothin till I call 'em."
:)
Re: now I get to tell my umpire / judge joke!