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Friday - May 26, 2006

NCAA baseball officiating

Brian, over at Big Ten Harball wonders if the Big 10 officials stink or not (scroll down to the bottom third of the post). Obviously, I don't know anything about Big 10 umps. But, I've watched a lot of Big 12 umps. There are are a few good ones, no doubt. But, I have to say that, overall, I'm not impressed. In particular, there are a few guys that have absolutely no consistency when it comes to the strike zone. The Big 12 does not help the situation at all by using only 3 officials for all regular-season conference games. It's bad enough when there are four of 'em on the field. But, when there are only 3 guys on the field, a lot of stuff gets missed. I can only guess that the decision to use 3 umps is based on financial considerations. It boggles the mind.

Brian asks:

If I hate the officiating because I think my team is getting screwed. And you hate the officiating because you think your team is getting screwed is it possible that the officials are actually just calling it even? Or, possibly, calling it accurately?

I do think it's a bad sign when both sets of fans and both benches are upset. Maybe it does all even out. I doubt that it does, though. And, you shouldn't have to count on that.

Anyway, my main point: if we're saddled with officials that aren't the best, the least the Big 12 can do is put 4 of 'em on the field for conference games. Really, that's the least they can do.

UPDATE (May 27, 10:30 AM). I sent the above (and more) to Brian via email. He replied last night and posed several questions:

Can they be just universally bad? I know some think NCAA basketball officials are poor across the board. Are we expecting too much? Are they too biased? Are they not trained well enough? Is the pay too low, the pressure too high and we've run off too many? Does the NCAA just tolerate poor umpiring because baseball isn't televised enough, so the mistakes aren't replayed or do too few of us really care about the results for the NCAA to care?

I hope Brian doesn't mind me adding to this post with his questions. I have to say that "yes" just might be the answer to most of the questions. Part of the problem is that it's actually a hard job. I'm sure the pay sucks. They're all part-timers who have regular jobs and aren't in it for the money. Most of them want to do a good job. But, they have to have their heads completely in the game for the whole game. Concentrating that much for that long is hard. Obviously, it's worse early in the season when the officials haven't gotten into game shape...just like the players.

I don't personally tend to blame umps for outcomes. I also don't blame the error at 3b or the home run given up in the 8th inning. There are way too many other things going on throughout the game to blame the outcome on any one call or play. People do tend to fall into that trap. That being said, when you see two identical pitches cross the plate and one's called a strike and the next is called a ball...that can be awfully aggravating. And, when an ump won't admit he's wrong because he doesn't want to lose face...well... Sadly, there is a personality quirk that some folks have where they just love upsetting people. They like hearing te boos and jeers from the crowd. Thankfully, there aren't a lot of those that I've seen but they are out there. There are a couple of umps who, when they're behind the plate, count to 3 before making the signal to the crowd on whether or not a pitch was a ball or strike. You can just feel them laughing to themselves as we all wait to see what the call will be. Yeah, they might say something right away that the catcher, pitcher, and hitter can hear. But, the crowd has to wait. It drives me nuts. It's not right. And, there are also umps who are just plain bad and you have no idea how they keep their jobs year after year. But, you see that in every profession: the receptionist who won't take messages, the sales clerk who can't bother to check the stock, the waiter that disappears as soon as the food arrives at the table, etc. It's no surprise that there are bad umps. It's part of life.

Frankly, I think the umps get more right than they get wrong. They pretty much have to due to the law of averages. And, you can tell when a call is probably okay. I love it when I'm at a game and a pitch gets called one way or the other and half the stadium boos but the other half stays quiet. That's a clear indication that the call was probably okay...that the loud half of the crowd just didn't have a clear view. So, you get a feel for when it's just a crowd frustrated with the fact that they're team isn't doing well and when the crowd is frustrated that the ump seems to have forgotten the rules...or his glasses.

One last point. I really don't think it's limited to college baseball. Mark Cuban (owner of the Dallas Mavs) goes on and on about officiating in the NBA. He's gone to great lengths to document problems. He's got people who can watch game tapes and count the problems. When you see the problems he documents at the highest level of professional sports, we really shouldn't be surprised to see the same things happen in college baseball. Sadly, it's a fact of life. It doesn't mean that things can't get better, though. Again I say: there really is no excuse for using fewer than four officials in conference games. The more eyes out there, the better chance the call will be right.

Posted by Joanna at 8:34 PM