But as often as Major League Baseball umpires have been caught making the wrong calls this October, Layne’s call could help eradicate the notion that umpires make certain calls according to historical precedent, and not what actually happened on the field. For instance, there is no such thing as tie goes to the runner. And pitches are not strikes if they go over the so-called “black” part of the plate for the simple reason that there is no black part of the plate in Major League Baseball.
And umpires do not give credit to a fielder for making a good throw, [MLB’s VP of umpiring Mike] Port said. If a tag is not made before the runner hits the bag, then the umpire is supposed to call him safe.
I won’t deny that they’re technically wrong calls, but we see those plays called all the time, right? I mean, the assertion that “there is no such thing” as balls on the black being strikes or the neighborhood play runs counter to our obvious experience watching games. In light of that, one of two things has to be the case: (a) there really is an unwritten rulebook; or (b) umpires get way more calls wrong than they’ll ever admit to because, like I said, we see that stuff called every single day.
So here’s the question I’d really like to see answered by umpire czar Mike Post, who is quoted in the article: are umpires disciplined or deducted points in evaluations or whatever when they call an out on the neighborhood play? Or when they call a consistent but technically wrong strike zone? I have this feeling that they aren’t or, at the very least, that “we’ve been calling it that way for 100 years” is viewed as an acceptable defense when umps are being graded and evaluated by their bosses.
If so, then there truly is an unwritten rulebook in practice. Which may or may not be a good thing (I’m split on some of these things), but it certainly means the linked article is more of a propaganda piece than anything else.
