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Amazing. I know that people make mistakes and no one is perfect, but how on earth could he have been looking at that play and still make that call?
The only thing that I can assume is the ump wasn't in place and didn't pay attention to what was actually happening, and that should be cause of discipline or dismissal. Making a bad call on a ball/strike behind the plate or a bang/bang play at first is one thing. Just completely missing an obviously call is inexcusable at this level. A fine or something is necessary.
Welke was in a poor position for making the call. His view of the base is blocked because Helton is facing him and is between Welke and the base.
I haven't seen video of it, but from the still photo, an elephant could have been standing there and he still should have seen that Helton's feet were 3 feet off the bag.
I haven't seen video of it, but from the still photo, an elephant could have been standing there and he still should have seen that Helton's feet were 3 feet off the bag.
The still photo above is from an angle where it is obvious. If you wished to know if someone standing in front of you has his or her heels touching the wall behind them, the worst possible view for judging it would be directly in front of the person. Walk around to one side or the other and you will be able to see the gap if one exists.
Helke was in the worst possible position for making that call.
Pretty close to the worst ever. I'm not in favor of replay, because there are four umps on the field, and 99.9% of all calls can be seen by watching the ball, which they are all doing. No other sport has four officials watching the ball or the puck, because they have to make calls away from the ball. It might be a solution if each manager were given 2 or 3 times a game that they could ask the umps to confer and see if somebody had a better look. When the umps do confer on their own, I think the call is overturned more often than not. So the idea would to be to force the few egocentric umps to confer.
The fact that Jim Joyce, for example, did not confer with others on the no-hitter, was far, far worse umpiring that just missing the call, and he should have been fired for that. So should Welke if he didn't ask his colleagues.
If the umpires won't voluntarily use a means that is already available to them (conference), we need a rule that will force them to.
The replay on boundary calls is OK, since it refers to a play that a hundred yards away from the nearest up, so that is a reasonable replay call, but I'm generality opposed to replays within the normal range of view of the umps. If mandatory umpire conferences still don't bang any sens into their heads, then replay might be the way we have to go.
I'd like to see some statistics on which umpires have conferred. I bet there are a few who have never conferred once in their entire career.
Put a 5th ump in the booth with a TV. Let him make these obvious calls. Righting this call wouldn't have taken more than 30 seconds, less than Mattingly argued.
And...it creates a need for more umpires. The umpires union would have to go for that, wouldn't they?
Put a 5th ump in the booth with a TV. Let him make these obvious calls. Righting this call wouldn't have taken more than 30 seconds, less than Mattingly argued.
And...it creates a need for more umpires. The umpires union would have to go for that, wouldn't they?
In this case, the home plate umpire who had a clear view and the second and third base umps also had pretty clear views. If the players and coaches in the 3rd base dugout saw the play clearly, then the umps did as well.
The fact that they felt it was better to keep quiet and "have the back" of their fellow ump rather than to get it right speaks volumes. It's about ego and less about doing their job correctly. Why isn't baseball like other sports where the officials conference and worry more about the call than about themselves?
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