POLL- do you think the Umpire determines who wins?

[EdLovrich]

I voted no, umpires do NOT determine which team wins any particular game. However, an umpire (especially a PU) CAN determine which team wins any particular game if s/he wished to do so. All I need is, at most, 16 pitches thrown to push a run across the plate. I can make calls so obviously wrong and one-sided, not calling players out or calling players out on the other side. Wrong team is ahead? My oh my, every one of their runners is leaving early, sorry young lady, you are out. "My" team needs a couple of runs? "Safe, off the bag".

Of course, as an umpire I would need to care enough who wins to submarine my reputation and self-respect to do this. Umpires just are not that invested in WHO wins. I know for me, and I suspect for the vast, vast majority of brothers and sisters in blue, it is about the GAME. The GAME needs to win each and every time we take the field.

 

[Vertigo]

A close play or a trap/catch in the OF can make the difference.

Yeah - this happened during DD’s last playoff game in HS. We had the tying run on 2B and our player hit a shot to the OF. CF come over and lays out - ball hit ground just in front of her glove first but then went into her glove - called batter out on “catch” - it was our 3rd out. Due to Covid last year all of our home games were broadcast via YouTube - when rewatching the video and slowing it down it was very obvious. In real time could have gone either way.

 

[_MIA_]

The constant in every game is that teams and umpires make mistakes.Assuming no bias, the umpire mistakes will be a wash over a season.

 

[PapaBear]

Saw people complain about the umpire in a baseball game last night. Game was close and the home team hit a bases loaded walk off to score two. Losing teams parent said the umpire behind the plate was awful in calling balls and strikes and the kids deserved better. Looking at the box score, the starting pitcher had 9 walks, at what point as a coach do you pull the pitcher in a close ball game and the pitcher hasn't adjusted to the umps zone. Easy to blame the ump vs. blaming the coach for leaving a kid in too long

 

[PapaBear]

I've said it here many times, teams like to blame umps when it goes against them but never speak up and boo when their team gets the bad call go their way.

 

[canyonjoe]

Yeah - this happened during DD’s last playoff game in HS. We had the tying run on 2B and our player hit a shot to the OF. CF come over and lays out - ball hit ground just in front of her glove first but then went into her glove - called batter out on “catch” - it was our 3rd out. Due to Covid last year all of our home games were broadcast via YouTube - when rewatching the video and slowing it down it was very obvious. In real time could have gone either way.

I'm in no way blaming umps just saying a call can have an affect on the game good or bad. I would also say they don't ever lost you the game. You always missed (or didn't miss) chances earlier in the game.

 

[Vertigo]

I'm in no way blaming umps just saying a call can have an affect on the game good or bad. I would also say they don't ever lost you the game. You always missed (or didn't miss) chances earlier in the game.

Agree. They definitely had missed opportunities in that game.

 

[CoachJD]

Almost always, no.

I can think of 3 games we've had where the umpire(s) absolutely determined the outcome, and in two of them I'm almost certain it was intentional.

Our most recent one had an umpire who was calling balls bouncing on the plate strikes for our batters (and he wouldn't allow them to move up beyond the front of home plate even though I explained to him how far in front of the plate the box goes -- there were no lines). He literally handicapped our batters and then called pitches they could not hit. Oh, and our pitchers? Unless they were firing it through the eye of a needle, they weren't getting calls.

Funny thing is he said he wanted hitters to "be aggressive because I'm aggressive calling strikes."

If I had to estimate, there had to be at least 75-80 pitches in that game that went in one team's direction. It was that bad, and I'm probably underselling it because there were entire at bats where after each pitch my catcher would look at me for the sign and give me the "that was a strike" look. We didn't draw a walk the entire game (the only other game this season we didn't walk was when we faced a pitcher throwing 60 and she mowed everyone down) and half their pitcher's pitches didn't get beyond home plate. It really could've been more. He made a couple other bad/curious calls, and a couple instances where he didn't know the rules (in one case he said "oh, you want to get technical with the rules?" when he wanted to call a player out for slinging the bat).

I think if our players had made every single possible play there was to make and gotten a base hit on every single actual strike they didn't get a hit on, we probably could've still won. But I also think it's unreasonable to expect perfection in order to overcome an umpire who is, for reasons I can only speculate on, is doing his best to help one of the teams win.

But short of something like that, a truly egregious example of an umpire going out of his way to help one team win... no, umpires don't really control who wins.

 

[flash277]

Almost always, no.

I can think of 3 games we've had where the umpire(s) absolutely determined the outcome, and in two of them I'm almost certain it was intentional.

Our most recent one had an umpire who was calling balls bouncing on the plate strikes for our batters (and he wouldn't allow them to move up beyond the front of home plate even though I explained to him how far in front of the plate the box goes -- there were no lines). He literally handicapped our batters and then called pitches they could not hit. Oh, and our pitchers? Unless they were firing it through the eye of a needle, they weren't getting calls.

Funny thing is he said he wanted hitters to "be aggressive because I'm aggressive calling strikes."

If I had to estimate, there had to be at least 75-80 pitches in that game that went in one team's direction. It was that bad, and I'm probably underselling it because there were entire at bats where after each pitch my catcher would look at me for the sign and give me the "that was a strike" look. We didn't draw a walk the entire game (the only other game this season we didn't walk was when we faced a pitcher throwing 60 and she mowed everyone down) and half their pitcher's pitches didn't get beyond home plate. It really could've been more. He made a couple other bad/curious calls, and a couple instances where he didn't know the rules (in one case he said "oh, you want to get technical with the rules?" when he wanted to call a player out for slinging the bat).

I think if our players had made every single possible play there was to make and gotten a base hit on every single actual strike they didn't get a hit on, we probably could've still won. But I also think it's unreasonable to expect perfection in order to overcome an umpire who is, for reasons I can only speculate on, is doing his best to help one of the teams win.

But short of something like that, a truly egregious example of an umpire going out of his way to help one team win... no, umpires don't really control who wins.

Too bad you didn't have a video of him, then you could of reported him.

 

[Sweet Lou]

Umpires rarely determine who wins and loses. For that you need you need a partial umpire who consciously and intentionally makes calls to favor one team over the other.

That said umpires are human and sometimes make mistakes. Sometimes those mistakes have an impact on who wins the game.