The Chapel Light - November 2009

Thanks to slow motion cameras an entire stadium and an entire television viewing audience can see an umpire’s mistake replayed frame by frame over and over again. So many sports enthusiasts are now calling for instant replay to correct umpire mistakes (which seem to have been legion during this year’s major league baseball playoffs). Just a few thoughts on that subject:     I’ve been an umpire for about nine years, working a little over four hundred games at every level from eight-year-old Pee Wees to high school varsity. For those who think bad calls are just umpire stupidity, I offer one suggestion: try umpiring six games–three behind the plate and three on the bases. It will change your view of the sport forever.     Once I was umpiring behind the plate and my partner on the bases was dealing with a confusing play at second similar to the one that recently occurred in the Yankees game–two runners trying to stand on one base. Both teams on the field had the same color uniforms and the same color hats. Three fielders were gathered around the base, tossing the ball back and forth, bobbling it, dropping it and trying to tag everyone in sight! My partner had to make a split second call, but he was so confused he made NO call at all–and turned to me for help! I had been trying to make sense of the mess from my position. I made a call, and instantly both coaches were out of the dugout arguing. I got them settled down and explained the rules I was applying based on what I had seen.     As I walked back to the plate, one coach said to me, “You know blue, I’m a plumber. And if I do a lousy job at plumbing, I don’t get paid. You hear what I’m saying?”     “I understand,” I said, “but when was the last time your day of plumbing involved split second decisions about complicated matters on the spur of the moment?”  I winked and got back behind the plate.     You’d be amazed at how fast things happen on the field! If you blink your eyes you can miss a pitcher’s balk. If you look down at your indicator to check on the batter’s count, you can miss a throw to first. You’d be amazed at how fast the pitch passes the plate, and how quickly that tag is made at the base. And how quickly people groan and yell over what you thought was a clear and simple no-brainer. You don’t have the advantage of slow motion action, of seeing the play a second time in great detail. You must make an immediate decision based on what you saw take place in a fraction of a second. You don’t have five vantage points (camera angles)–you have ONE: the eyes in your head from the place you’re standing. You’d be amazed at how fast things happen, and how easy it is to have your view blocked by a player, or to be unable to get into position so you have the best angle.        Should there be instant replay in baseball? My perspective is that sports are intended to be a form of diversion–just for fun. I don’t think they should be taken too seriously. But there is something in my soul (or maybe it’s my body)–and I think in most men’s bodies (I think it’s called testosterone)–that makes us more and more competitive when we begin to play. The more competitive we grow, the more detailed our rules become. The more detailed our rules become, the more detailed our rules have to become (yes, I intended to say it twice). And we get more and more serious about our play. Sometimes I think that we as a nation are more serious about our sports than we are about our personal discipline, the rearing and education of our children, the government of our nation, and even our faith. So I think that for people like that, who insist on working at their play, instant replay is inevitable. We will demand it and get it–especially in professional sports, which are about money, not fun. But deep down I think that level of technicality is bad for our souls. It encourages the technical legalist in all of us, and somehow I think that’s harmful to us—whether we’re talking about religion or sports.     I for one prefer the human factor. Accept human finiteness and let the umpire or the referee make the call. Stop replaying it a gazillion times in slow motion! You win some, you lose some. If there was baseball in heaven, how do you think it would be played?  I think there would be rules, and even umpires and umpiring. Scores would be kept, and someone would win and someone would lose. But somehow I don’t believe there would be slow motion cameras or instant replay. Not because the umpiring would be perfect, but because people would play and not worry about it.     But this isn’t heaven.     Sigh…