There is a problem in baseball.  Well, there are several problems in baseball, but this might be slightly different than the tired old rant about steroids, or superstar attitudes, or even kevlar elbow protectors.  This issue spans all of baseball, not just the major leagues.

Officiating at its heart is a very, very difficult job.  An in-game official is expected to get every single call right, make the call with authority, and remember a myriad of rules with very specific language.  This is why you will usually find nothing but positive words from me regarding officiating, save for the rare super skewed game turning call that was obviously botched (See Don Denkinger, for example).

What you will find me complaining about is when an official makes it about him (or her, in the NBA) and not the game.  This is the problem in baseball. Without question, baseball umpires are the most egotistical bunch of overbearing children by far.  Think about it for a second:  How many NFL films clips have you seen there Bill Parcells is up in a poor line-judge’s grill and the official just stands there and listens, calmly, without any hint of self-awareness.  Basketball officials constantly are exposed to head coaches berating them for 48 minutes worth of game time, and often show restraint that most men couldn’t attain. Even hockey officials take their share of abuse and seem to understand that often times, the coach just needs to put on a display to make his team feel like he is standing up to them.  Baseball umpires tend to more closely resemble the testosterone-fueled frat guy looking for a fight than the reserved pacifist who just wants to get the call right.

A few examples jump right out at me.  The first one happened in my son’s little league game this past week.  Both of the umpires in this particular game made calls that could very easily be classified as questionable.  Parents have a tendency in these games to be very vocal because the kids aren’t of the age to defend themselves, and we parents tend to try and stand up for our children.  After listening to 10 seconds of a parent barking at him, the home plate umpire took off his mask, turned towards the backstop, and said “You don’t want to go there with me”.  I was absolutely shocked.  This sounded less like a request to please stop, and more like a challenge to throw down in the parking lot.  As an umpire, you should have some sort of ability to handle criticism without feeling the need to retort with something like that.

Before I go any further, I should mention that I have done my share of officiating.  When I was eighteen, I was a member of the Southwest Basketball Official’s Association.  I spent my afternoons and evenings after high school traveling to very small gyms refereeing JV and junior-high school games.  Trust me, I took my fair share of criticism.  Eventually, this was the reason I stopped, because the criticism I took was very, very harsh, and I don’t deal with that well, but that is beside the point.

This takes us to the major leagues.  You will not find a more hot-headed, egomanaiacal group of people than the current majore league umpires, and it starts at the top.  Without a shred of evidence in my hand, I have to speculate that the umpires are told by their higher-ups not to take any kind of lip from anyone.  That isn’t even the problem, though!  The problem is the way they approach this zero-tolerance attitude.  How many times have you seen an umpire rip off his face mask and take a menacing step towards a player or manager, as if challenging him to a fight?  This kind of action is deplorable for very well paid men who are expected to have some amount of self control.

Sure, there are umpires who are worse than others.  C.B. Bucknor is a favorite sacrificial lamb of many a disgruntled MLB fan, but he brings it upon himself.  Twice voted by players as the worst umpire in the major leagues, Bucknor has a very quick trigger and tends to lean towards the more aggressive side, but he is hardly the only one.  The second example is this game recap. Julio Lugo gets ejected after asking an umpire what he was staring at.  Ego maniacs.  Plain and simple.

We all remember the episode from San Antonio where NBA official Joey Crawford ejected Tim Duncan for allegedly snickering on the bench when Crawford was talking to him.  Crawford was suspended the next day for the rest of the season for overstepping his boundaries as an official.  This might be the only time in the near future we use the NBA’s handling of an official as a positive example, but it at least shows that the NBA is committed to making the players the real story, and not the fragile egos of their referees.

This inability to turn off the ego trickles down through all levels of baseball.  I have seen many, many examples of umpires as low as t-ball show the same aggressive stance towards anyone who dares to question their supreme authority.  I think it is time for MLB to step up and order a humble pie or two for their officials, because like it or not, they are role models for thousands of umpires across the country, and they must be conscious of that fact.

Tags: baseball umpires ego problem