Poll Results: Are Umpires Doing a Good Job?

So my posting of the results of this poll has been pretty delayed, but it looks like it's going to work out because of some more recent events that I can talk about in this post that I wouldn't have been able to talk about had I posted these results on time. Anyway, here are the results from the last poll:

Are Umpires doing a good job for the most part?

Yes 8 (61%)

No 5 (38%)

The majority of you, albeit not an incredibly powerful majority, seem to think umpires are doing a good job for the most part. Part of the reason I posted this was because I was curious to see how much Jim Joyce's mistake would effect people's votes. I'm sure last year's post-season blunders also helped contribute to 38 percent of the voters not thinking the umpires are doing a good job.

Interestingly, ESPN ran a poll of players to see how they felt umpires were doing, and also to see who the players felt the best umpires in the game were. 65 percent of players (which is actually close to the results of this poll) seem to think that the umpires are doing an average job or better. More interestingly, they found that Jim Joyce was the bes tumpire in the major leagues according to the players, and this poll was done after the Galarraga game.

Overall, I have to agree that umpires are doing their job. They do make their share of mistakes, but so do officials in every other sport. Umpires are right the majority of the time, unless they are CB Bucknor, in which case the strike zone seems to change on every pitch.

Bud Selig's Comments on Jim Joyce's Blown Call

So, as expected, Bud Selig quickly came out with comments in regard to Joyce's blown call.

Unshockingly, Selig said he would not reverse the call, which I think is a good idea because (as Kurkjian notes in that video), it would open up a can of worms in regard to baseball. While some seem to be worried that past umpire mistakes would have to be re-examined and overturned if Selig overturned this call, I thinkt he main problem would be the future. I can almost guarantee that in the future, had Selig overturned the call, there would have been a situation in which something happens that causes a team or player to demand another umpiring decision to be overturned. The problem is, in most cases, an umpire call is not even easy to talk about overturning because you can't reply certain parts of the game. While it's true that the blown call was on the very last out of the game, I still feel it would have created problems in the future in regard to people demanding the commissioner over turn umpire calls.

The other important thing that Selig said is that he is going to analyze umpiring and figur eout what they can do to increase accuracy. In other words, he's considering implementing further instant replay reviews. I'm glad to see that he is considering this, the "Special Committee" he appointed during the off-season has also apparently been throwing the idea around. I think it's important that they get it right if they do implement it, and limit the number of reviews that a manager can ask for, otherwise the system would be abused. It would even kind of make sense if it were the umpires themselves who decided when to use the instant replay review, such as during an extremely close play like the one that occurred during Galarraga's 1-hitter.

Should be interesting to see what happens with instant replay, I have a pretty strong feeling that it will probably be implemented by the 2011 season.