- By the end of the 1920s, at least 10 umpires had been killed or mortally wounded on the field -- in one case, an umpire was punched so hard in the face that a fragment of his jaw ripped through his brain like a spear. In 1911, a semipro player in Georgia got so tired of insisting that the umpire had the score wrong that he walked off the bench with a pistol and shot the man.
- Today, the abuse that umpires take is more subtle -- but in a way just as sinister. Their mistakes are played back in slow motion by 24-hour sports networks, then piled on by talk-radio hosts and tweeting fans. Major league calls can now be challenged with instant replay, and strike zones get checked by a soul-crushing digital technology called Zone Evaluation. Death threats have been known to appear on their children's Facebook pages. Understandably, some umpires have found they need someone to talk to.
This is a good point. I don't have any sympathy for them, really. Any position in major league sports is looked at just as critically, and every other sports referees are critiqued and their errors corrected and they learn to be better. Someone baseball umpires think their above that and oppose technology that can make things more accurate. Don't get me wrong, I love the human element of umpires, but they should definitely be held to a higher standard and trained to be better. People like Angel Hernandez and Cowboy Joe have no business being anywhere near a major league game, especially when they care more about their call standing than getting the right call.
Many umpires including, I believe, the ones you mentioned are in favor of expanded replay. They get something like 97 percent of their calls right on aggregate.Someone baseball umpires think their above that and oppose technology that can make things more accurate.
Don't get me wrong, I love the human element of umpires, but they should definitely be held to a higher standard and trained to be better.
I recall hearing Angel was opposed. Perhaps I'm wrong. And I think, overall, the umpires are very good at their job. There are big issues at the plate, I feel; however, and the issue is more in the perception of the fans than with the umps actual opinions. Whenever someone brings up issues with umpires, someone always rabidly argues about them being the ultimate deciders and that no one should question them. It's not a rational opinion from most of them.
There are around 4 umps who have strike zones that are known to not align with the one we think of (like I said somewhere else - it's a tenure track job). The rest might have off nights but on the whole maybe miss one or two calls out of ~75 in a game. That's incredible. I get testy about umpiring, because I umpired for a while at a local level -- teenagers for chrissakes -- and it was the hardest (most skill-needed) job I've ever had or probably ever will have. And I was treated like shit at least once a day. Which is fine, comes with the territory -- but the money does not come with the territory until you become one of the 100 major league umpires. So 99% of all professional umps are doing it essentially because they love the game. Read this. EDIT: I think Hernandez flipped on instant replay because he was vocally opposed in the past but according to a broadcast I caught the other day he has supported its execution this year.
Oh absolutely. I respect umps more than almost anyone. That's a tough as shit job that requires a certain amount of balls and an eye for details and I just don't have that and find it incredible. Certain individuals in the union just ruin things by their absolutes, and unfortunately they are the ones that get the attention; but when games are very well decided by their calls in many cases, it's important to hold them to a certain standard. Also, fuck every person who get bent out of shape and yelling at umps at teenagers playing the game. Things like that-- adults taking the game far more seriously then they should-- are what got me to stop playing sports entirely, and I'll never forgive them for ruining what should have been a happy, fun childhood memory and making it into a living hell.
It's just like everything else really. People don't always notice when things are working the way they should be, but the second something goes wrong that is what's remembered. Referees and umpires in every sport are remembered more for what they get wrong than what they get right. That said, screw Angel and Joe.
Almost positive MLB umpires make upwards of 300k, actually [edit: oh that is what you wrote I'm dumb]. But they're the equivalent of tenured professors and while I haven't read the article yet, the part insom quoted is much more apt if applied to minor league umpires. Until you get to the majors your job takes an extreme psychological toll and you get paid on the order of 20k. There are some really interesting books about umpires but I can't remember offhand which ones I've read. EDIT: I think you should read up before making statements like that.I doubt that your average late night convince store employee takes less abuse.
I'm comfortable with that opinion. I deal with the late and drunk crowd from a reasonably well compensated position of some respect and I still get plenty of shit. I think an immigrent getting minimum wage in a no respect powerless poistion has it much worse. Don't know how many umpires have been phisicaly assaulted but It's happened to me more than once, including having a gun pulled on me on late shifts.
Well ... one's a hard job (very, very hard) and one's not. A convenience store worker doesn't go to every shift nervous, unless he happens to live in a very shitty area, and most every convenience store I've been to in a shitty area has the employee working from behind bulletproof glass these days.