Does Baseball Need Umpires?

Every day during the months of summer, a large amount of people devote their time to the games of Major League Baseball (MLB). This organization supplies entertaining games that arouse many people, while disappointing others. It is important to remember that only one team leaves the field in victory. Although the use of excuses is often condemned, that does not stop people from using them when explaining why a particular team lost. During the reasoning stage of the analysis for a team’s loss, the umpire is a participant a large percentage of the time. Supposedly, the errors that umpires are blamed for can be avoided with the use of current technology-instant replay. The capabilities of instant replay could totally wipe out the need for umpires altogether. Still, umpires are as much a part of baseball as any of the players and do not need to be sent into exile by recent technology.

The umpires are the officials in baseball who determine the outcome of every action on the field of play. One official is assigned to each of the three bases, and one behind home plate. Every time a pitch travels towards home plate then, the umpire determines if it is ball or a strike. For every meeting of an offensive and defensive force at any of the bases, it is the umpire who decides if the offensive runner can stay or leave. The umpire also has to watch for improper actions within the field of play, like wrongful motions by the pitcher (a balk). Overall, the umpires are an important aspect of the game of baseball.

Umpires are subject to error. It is often noted how humans cannot be right all the time, and this theory is often brought up in baseball discussions. Many of the actions on the baseball field happen at an excessively fast rate. Pitchers can sometimes throw the ball at rate exceeding 100 miles per hour. The umpire then has very little time to determine if the traveling pitch is within the borders of home plate and is at height relevant to the batter. It is important to remember that batters vary in height, so the strike zone alters for each batter. It is also common for a runner and an infielder, who has the ball, to meet at a base at almost the same time. The umpire is then responsible for deciding if the runner reached the base before coming in contact with the ball. This is a difficult task and subject to error.

Recent technology has made umpires’ errors an issue. Instant replay is available to almost anyone who watches a baseball game. Most television networks replay major plays to let everyone know whether or not the right call was made. As well, most MLB fields have a large screen that shows replays of the major plays so the fans there also can see whether or not the correct call was made. Basically, everyone can see what should have been called, but that is irrelevant to the calls of the umpires.

Altering the role of the umpire could have a serious effect on the game of baseball. Instant replay could be brought into baseball, but where would the use of technology stop? Truthfully speaking, umpires could be eliminated from every game. All that would be needed is one person to announce decisions from an instant replay room. Is that really what people want, and would the technological changes stop there? Pitchers could be replaced by pitching machines, and then the catcher isn’t much of a catcher anymore. Hearing the words “you’re out!” and “safe!” are too much an aspect of baseball to be suddenly terminated by instant replay. Forget not, the entertaining arguments between the umpires and managers that always arise after a manager believes an umpire made a bad call. Even though the technology to correct certain issues exists, does not mean that it should be put into effect.

Umpires are a major part of baseball and do not need to be relieved of their work. It is true that they sometimes make the wrong calls. Some errors that umpires make seem more severe than others. Still, the errors usually equal out for both teams in the end, and rarely cause the wrong team to finish victorious. If the errors of the umpires appear that upsetting, just imagine all the positive traits of the game that could be removed if technology is brought in.