Stark: Eight ways to improve umpiring
From SABR member Jayson Stark at ESPN.com on May 16, 2013:
If you’d just decided to start following baseball, oh, around the middle of last week, you’d probably think umpires were some kind of wacky cross between Cliff Clavin, Ralph Kramden and Homer Simpson.
But if you’ve actually been paying attention for the past decade or six, you’d know the truth: Most umpires are actually better at their jobs than any of us are at our jobs.
Except when they’re not.
Whereupon we cue up the “SportsCenter” worst-call-ever video reel and, well, you know the rest.
But we’re not here to keep reliving that replay debacle in Cleveland or that pitching-change fiasco in Houston. Been there. Done that. About two billion times. Nope, this time we’re here to help.
We’ve spent the past few days asking players, executives and people from all walks of baseball whether there are real, constructive, practical measures this sport could take to improve the quality of umpiring in the big leagues. And guess what? They fired out some awesome ideas. Now heeeeeeeere they come.
Read the full article here: http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/9278742/eight-ways-improve-umpiring-mlb
Originally published: May 16, 2013. Last Updated: May 16, 2013.