“Right” When They’re Wrong Fallible Umpires and Infallible (Inexorable, Inescapable) Rules

18th Annual ConferenceBaseball in Literature and Culture

April 5, 2013

Reflections on rules, infractions and misapplications of the rules, the final arbiters of the rules, and the fans who love to complain about them…

by John Updike

It looks easy from a distance,easy and lazy, even,until you stand up to the plateand see the fastball sailing inside,an inch from your chin,or circle in the outfieldstraining to get a beadon a small black dota city block or more high,a dark star that could fallon your head like a leaden meteor…

Baseball

The Umpire by Milton Bracker (1962)

The umpire is a lonely manWhose calls are known to every fanYet none will call him Dick or DanIn all the season's games.They'll never call him Al or EdOr Bill or Phil or Frank or FredOr Jim or Tim or Tom or TedThey'll simply call him names.

(Must ask our friend Mark Sickman, the “Baseball Bard,” for more umpire-etry… )

Yet let the umpire call a close play against the Knights and he became a target for pop bottles, beer cans, old shoes or anything that appened to be lying around loose…

Bernard Malamud, The Natural

Baseball Umpires' Nightly Nightmare

Minor league umpires are much like minor league players. When they finally get a chance to prove their stuff in the big leagues, they want to succeed. The biggest difference is, when a player gets the call he wants to do something spectacular to impress his bosses. The mark of a great umpire is when no one notices him at all.

Chris Conroy got noticed...

Umpire's Ejection of "Three Blind Mice" Deejay Was Historically Correct Call

A minor league umpire's ejection of an intern deejay for the Daytona Cubs for playing a sound clip of the nursery rhyme "Three Blind Mice" Wednesday has given added credence to the classic George Santayana statement, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it…"

Robin Yount often disagreed with umpires on close plays at first, but on viewing the replay, it almost always turned out he was wrong. It was funny, Yount acknowledged, how your point of view can affect your vision and your decision-making…

I asked Yount if he'd ever spoken to umpires about why that is, about what they do to see the play properly."No," he said. "I never did."

NPR, NPR2

Game Called Because of Rain or Three Umpiresby Norman Rockwell (1949)

Murfreesboro’s most famous son reminds us, the integrity of how we play the game is indispensable. We must have rules, and we must have interpreters, applicators, and enforcers of rules.

But we don’t have to like them. Do we?

"Baseball fits America well because it expresses our longing for the rule of law while licensing our resentment of law givers.“

- A. Bartlett Giamatti

"I couldn't see well enough to play when I was a boy, so they gave me a special job - they made me an umpire." - Harry S. Truman

"I know that if I bump (an umpire), I'm suspended for four games. If they bump a guy you never hear about it. If we curse one of them, we get thrown out of a game and fined. If they curse a guy, they don't get thrown out." - Terry Pendleton 

"I think umpires have too much power, without any system of checks and balances and the more money a player makes, the more the umpire tries to show off that power to him. Unfortunately, since I signed my contract my strike zone has suddenly become a lot larger." - Ozzie Smith

“I've never questioned the integrity of an umpire. Their eyesight, yes.” ― Leo Durocher

“Ideally, the umpire should combine the integrity of a Supreme Court judge, the physical agility of an acrobat, the endurance of Job and the imperturbability of Buddha.” ― Time-Life Books

“In and effort to be fair, an umpire will sometimes cheat.” ― Dan Gutman, It Ain't Cheating If You Don't Get Caught

“It never hurts to apologize, especially if you don't mean it.” ― Jim Bouton, Ball Four

R.A. Dickey, Wherever I Wind Up: My Quest for Truth, Authenticity and the Perfect Knuckleball

R.A. Dickey writes of the exceptional (minor league) umpire who acknowledged blowing calls because he’d never seen the knuckler before. “Even in Spring Training, it’s the kind of admission you rarely hear from an umpire,, and it shows me a whole lot.”

Why isn't there a great movie about baseball umpires?

Umpire: the Integrity of the GameWe love to hate the umpires, love to blame them for our team’s misfortunes. But, truth be told, there is no other group of men in baseball more deserving of respect for their dedication to the purity of the game. Umpires have never been associated with any of the scandals that have been woven into the fabric of professional baseball since its inception. They get little respect from fans or players, they don’t get paid millions, and it is certainly no fun being in their particular spotlight.

The Umpire Matthew's Full Length Test Movie (Test Movie 2) 05/25/2011 

A ball player gets in trouble for punching an umpire, and is sentenced to 100 hours community service to be served as an umpire. Now the man who hates umpires has to be one.

AwardsWinner, May 2011 Best Test Movie Award

Creative Notes-I shot and edited this over the last three months. My budget was zero dollars. The actors are mostly friends from my church. The biggest change from the script is the ending. People consistently commented on the script's weak ending, and the more I looked at it the more I thought they were right. So I wrote a new ending, and also altered many events that lead to it.

Kill the Umpire (1950)

Ex-baseball player Bill Johnson (William Bendix' ), failing at many jobs when his ball-playing days are over, reluctantly takes the advice of his father-in-law, Jonah Evans (Ray Collins), a retired umpire, and enters an umpire-training school. Assigned to the Texas League, he does fine until the championship play-offs when a riot develops over one of his calls. The involved player is knocked unconscious in the proceedings and cannot verify that Bill made the correct call… imdb

“There are many worthy films about the farce and tragedy of playing Major League Baseball -- "Field of Dreams," "The Natural" and "Bull Durham," to name a few…” LA Times, 6.3.10

Jim Joyce openly blew one of the biggest calls in recent baseball… Joyce's call swiped a perfect game from Detroit Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga. 

But ok, point taken: we’re still waiting for the great American umpire movie.

Unlike the usual reticence and spin of a pro-sports officiating crew, Joyce immediately copped to his mistake.  "It was the biggest call of my career and I kicked it. I just cost that kid a perfect game," he said, adding a human -- and cinematic -- dimension to a part of sports most of us never see.

One can imagine a great character drama that centers on an umpire. Their itinerant, frequently thankless life -- most of us don't notice an umpire until they mess something up -- along with the requirement to maintain a stoic public face while perhaps inwardly resenting their judge-and-jury role is pure George Clooney …

Joyce-gate has brought back to the surface, and elicited interviews with, Don Denkinger, the umpire who famously took the 1985 World Series from the St. Louis Cardinals.

Top game-changing plays in World Series history

Before umpire Don Denkinger mistakenly called the Kansas City Royals' Jose Orta safe at first to start the ninth inning in Game 6, the Cardinals were up by one run and 3-2 in the series...

Over the course of Major League Baseball's illustrious history, the umpires who dedicate their lives to making the calls right have often gotten them wrong. Many baseball fans have accepted that mistakes and blown calls are part of the game, but it's a different issue when the calls start deciding the outcome of a game. The 2012 MLB postseason has since added to the infield fly debacle with a questionable call on a Nate McLouth foul ball and another on a Robinson Cano tag at second base. Where do they rank all-time among the worst? Click here to see the Top 10 worst calls in MLB postseason history>>

Read more at: http://nesn.com/2012/10/infield-fly-rule-call-among-top-ten-worst-calls-in-mlb-postseason-history-video-gallery/

NESN.com

…but loosely understood, inconsistently applied, and self-servingly defended.

Infallible like the pope?

“You cannot call that an infield fly!” But the umpire can. Blown calls are part of the game, and part of life.

Would I be so “philosophical” if the call had gone against my team? Of course not.

“You can’t do that!” But the umpire can. He’s “infallible.” Like the Pope.

And as Dan Dennett has written, having a team can be meUp@dawnaningful and gratifying (or galling, Braves fans?) if you don’t forget it’s only a game.... (Continues at, Up@dawn October 6, 2012)

So when Popes and umps retire do they become fallible again?

How can a pope/ump can be infallible one day and fallible again the next?

The Vatican has acknowledged some of the confusion. “For many it’s still a surprise,” Father Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, said last week. “There’s a lot of reflection on the significance of the decision and what this implies for the church and for the Roman Curia.” nyt

October 6, 2012

Did the umpires get that infield fly rule call right?Paul White says yes.Watch replays closely and you'll see that Holbrook, the left field umpire, watches as shortstop Pete Kozma backpedals into left field. As soon as Kozma waves his arms to communicate that he's ready to catch the ball, Holbrook raises his arm to signal an infield fly.

In other words, the umpire waits until he's certain it's a play the infielder can make. Kozma apparently thought it was a play he could make.

http://althouse.blogspot.com/2012/10/did-umpires-get-that-infield-fly-call.html

Official Rules: 2.00 Definition of Terms

An INFIELD FLY is a fair fly ball (not including a line drive nor an attempted bunt) which can be caught by an infielder with ordinary effort, when first and second, or first, second and third bases are occupied, before two are out. The pitcher, catcher and any outfielder who stations himself in the infield on the play shall be considered infielders for the purpose of this rule.When it seems apparent that a batted ball will be an Infield Fly, the umpire shall immediately declare “Infield Fly” for the benefit of the runners. If the ball is near the baselines, the umpire shall declare “Infield Fly, if Fair.”..

Major League Baseball's Official Playing Rules Committee has opted to alter baseball's definition of the infield fly rule following a contested play late in the 2012 season that baffled broadcasters, flummoxed fans and caused a 19-minute delay.No, the disputed play was not the infamous Cardinals vs. Braves Wild Card sequence that saw fans hurling debris on the field in protest of umpire Sam Holbrook's gutsy—yet absolutely correct—call...

Instead, the change comes in response to August 26's Marlins vs. Dodgers game in which the infield fly rule fused with interference to wreak havoc on a fairly benign transcontinental NL clash...

If interference is called during an infield fly, the ball remains alive until it is determined whether the ball is fair or foul. If fair, both the runner who interfered with the fielder and the batter are out. If foul, even if caught, the runner is out and the batter returns to bat.

Added to Rule 2.00 (Infield Fly) for 2013 is the phrase:

The Baseball Codes — colloquially referred to as the unwritten rules of the game — comprise the methods players use to police themselves and each other. It’s a moral code that, on and off the field, is used to keep the game pure.

Jason Turbow

Jim Bouton recounted in his book, I’m Glad You Didn’t Take it Personally, the time that Ryne Duren walked three straight hitters on 12 neck-high fastballs. Wrote Bouton:

Finally he walked across a run and he stormed up to the home-plate umpire. “Goddammit, where the hell are those pitches?”

“Right up here, Ryne,” the umpire said, pointing to his neck.

“Well, goddammit,” Duren said, “I’ve got to have that pitch.”

The Baseball Codes

I spent much of Spring Break watching Middle & High School softball…

My High School daughter’s team played for 3+ hours one night, to a 13-13 draw when the ump was persuaded by the other team’s attractive young coach to return to the field from the parking lot and nulllify the home team’s 13-12 victory on the basis of a dubious scorekeeping challenge.

Next morning, my Middle Schooler’s team coasted to a 16-4 win. Different ump, different atmosphere. What made the difference?

Both umps betrayed humility… But only Ump #2 did so without any sacrifice of authority or credibility.

I don’t know how you teach that in umpiring school. Just wish they would.

“Many of our most serious conflicts are conflicts within ourselves. Those who suppose their judgements are always consistent are unreflective or dogmatic.” 

― John Rawls, Justice as Fairness: A Restatement

“The point of having rules derives from the fact that similar cases tend to recur and that one can decide cases more quickly if one records past decisions in the form of rules. If similar cases didn't recur, one would be required to apply the utilitarian principle directly, case by case, and rules reporting past decisions would be of no use.” Rawls, Two Concepts of Rules

The Rawlsian point, as it seems to apply : even the most consistent umps will make mistakes; but, they must still adjudicate each new play in the light of past decisions. The pop fly rises over the infield, the fielder gestures for a catch, the ump must make a call. Sometimes it’s right, sometimes not. Only very rarely is it malicious.

Could there be a better way?

If the days are gods, as Transcendentalist Emerson declared…

Opening Days are seminally divine.

“If we take eternity to mean not infinite temporal duration but timelessness, then eternal life belongs to those who live in the present.” ― Ludwig Wittgenstein

And so, here in the present, the rules of the game and their custodians in blue remain beyond final reproach.

Umpires are as flawed and fallible as us all. Sometimes they’re wrong, sometimes they blow the call.

But in spite of themselves, against our better judgement, they’re bound to be “right.”

"They expect an umpire to be perfect on Opening Day and to improve as the season goes on." - American League Umpire Nestor Chylak

"Any time I got those 'bang-bang' plays at first base, I called 'em out. It made the game shorter." - National League Umpire Tom Gorman

"If they did get a machine to replace us, you know what would happen to it? Why, the players would bust it to pieces every time it ruled against them. They'd clobber it with a bat." - National League Umpire Harry Wendelstadt

More umpire quotes

“Maybe I called it wrong, but it’s official.”

Tommy Connolly