In light of the recent “miscarriage of instant replay” that occurred in Cleveland, one thought keeps going through my head….Where’s the Accountability? If I make a mistake in my job, I have to own up to it, and explain why it happened, to my boss. Who are the umpires accountable to?
To make this call in Cleveland even more maddening is that we have instant replay, and they still got it wrong. Angel Hernandez, who is the crew chief, has been an umpire for 20+ years, and has been known as one of the worst umpires in the league on a consistent basis over his entire career. And the statement that was made after the game was even more confusing, as he basically blamed the equipment they were watching the replay on, like it was a 19-inch black&white with only one piece of foil on the antenna. The explanation was so bad Joe Torre had to make a statement also, saying they have high definition equipment and access to the same replays that the public has.
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These guys are not Supreme Court Justices…this is not a lifetime job – at least it shouldn’t be. MLB “fired” Eric Gregg because of a weight problem, but they can’t get rid of an umpire because they haven’t been doing the job well?
There was an incident a few years back that was handled about as well as can be handled. Armando Galarraga was having the game of his life, throwing a perfect game with two outs in the ninth. The last hitter grounded to first, the ball was flipped to Galarraga, everyone started celebrating…..until first base umpire Jim Joyce called the runner, incorrectly, safe at first base. Once the game was over, and the smoke had cleared, imagine my astonishment when I saw Jim Joyce standing in front of reporters apologizing for missing the call, and costing Galarraga the moment of a lifetime.
But did we see that in this instance? No. We saw the “holier than thou” umpiring that has been a thorn in the side of baseball fans for years. Once MLB starts making them earn their positions due to performance, and they realize that instant replay is there to assist them – and not a judgment of them -then situations like what happened the other night in Cleveland will become fewer and further between.
