Making The Right Call The Dilemma Of MLB Umpires

Making the Right Call: The Dilemma of MLB Umpires

Hall of Fame infielder Johnny Evers once said, "My favorite umpire is a dead one" (Umpire). It is said that for all good there must be evil, and that evil in baseball is pinned on the umpires. Umpiring baseball is a thankless job, with every close pitch call or play at the plate resulting in one of the two teams hating the umpire. Despite this, umpires are a necessary part of the game and play a significant role in how baseball games are played and their results. Umpires are influenced in a variety of different ways, from the celebrity-status players to the thousands of hometown fans booing any call against the home team. Subconscious bias also plays a big role in the decisions made by Major

While they always try to make the right call, there are several underlying factors thatinfluence the decisions made by umpires. The reputation of star players and monumental situations have been found to influence calls made by umpires, known as status bias and the Matthew effect. In a paper written by Jerry Kim and Brayden King, they conclude, “having status leads to more positive outcomes for pitchers”. The study found that the best pitchers in the league were more likely to get the call on a borderline pitch for no other reason than their status and popularity. This study exposes the role subconscious biases have on umpires decisions, even when they are trying to be as fair as possible. However, popular players in important situations do not always end up on the winning side of status bias. In a game in 2010, Detroit Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga was one out away from becoming the 21st pitcher in MLB history to throw a perfect game, a near impossible achievement for big league pitchers. The final play was close at first base but seemed obvious to everyone watching that the runner was out by a fair margin. However, to everyone's dismay, first base umpire Jim Joyce called the runner safe and ended Galarraga’s perfect game. Joyce said in an interview, “this is a history call, and I

It is said that for all good there must be evil, and that evil in baseball is pinned on the umpires. Umpiring baseball is a thankless job, with every close pitch call or play at the plate resulting in one of the two teams hating the umpire. Despite this, umpires are a necessary part of the game and play a significant role in how baseball games are played and their results. Umpires are influenced in a variety of different ways, from the celebrity-status players to the thousands of hometown fans booing any call against the home team. Subconscious bias also plays a big role in the decisions made by Major League Umpires, causing them to favor or discriminate against certain players and teams without realizing it. Changes have been made to Major League Baseball (MLB) in an attempt to limit the effect umpires have on the outcome of games, such as the instant replay system and manager challenges. Minor leagues have also begun to implement an automatic strike zone that calls balls and strikes instead of an umpire, further reducing the impact umpires have on the outcome of games. MLB umpires are influenced by various factors, including status bias, technological innovations in monitoring and evaluation, performance standards, training, ethics, and discrimination; however, instead of replacing umpires in favor of automated pitch calling systems and computers, training programs and incentives