Phillies at Nationals

[JRutledge]

That all sounds great in theory, but you think there are 32 former MLB umpires that are physically capable, one per city that is available to work a game at the last minute?

Good luck with that policy. And would someone want to hang out with what they already make to hope and pray someone goes down just to work? And this is such a rare situation in the first place that I doubt this even would be worth it to have someone on constant hold.

Peace

[tmagan]

Originally Posted by JRutledge

That all sounds great in theory, but you think there are 32 former MLB umpires that are physically capable, one per city that is available to work a game at the last minute?

Good luck with that policy. And would someone want to hang out with what they already make to hope and pray someone goes down just to work? And this is such a rare situation in the first place that I doubt this even would be worth it to have someone on constant hold.

Peace

They don't have to be former MLB umpires, former minor league umpires would suffice. If this were a pennant race game, it doesn't look good to appeal to the third base umpire when he is next to the second baseman.

[JRutledge]

Originally Posted by tmagan

They don't have to be former MLB umpires, former minor league umpires would suffice. If this were a pennant race game, it doesn't look good to appeal to the third base umpire when he is next to the second baseman.

Still not practical. You want a guy that never got to the majors working those games as the standard?

Now they could add a couple of guys to each crew and rotate guys in and out regularly, but that is not going to happen either.

How many times does this situation even happen? Not very often if hardly ever, so there would be no need to do such a thing. Baseball is not that hard where guys cannot adjust for one game in 3 Person in an emergency.

Peace

[SAump]

Talk about adding 15 field supervisors (working for ESPN), expanding the field coverage from the ESPN tv booth, and allowing more rules for using instant replay from the ESPN tv booth.

One baseball guy, working in an ESPN tv booth, with the power to allow the call to stand or to overrule the call in judgement cases where overturning the ruling on the field does not destroy the integrity of the game.

This message is not an endorsement from ESPN.


All Top Plays | PHI@WSH: Absent umpire at third base impacts game - Video | MLB.com: Multimedia

[umpjim]

"Andy Fletcher who was on the first base side second base, although I think he should have been on the third base side of second base, for if there were a double steal he would have not a chance to run toward third to make a call."

He was there with R1 only. Did he stay there with R1, R2? Deep B is now being favored with R1.

[MD Longhorn]

Originally Posted by JRutledge

That all sounds great in theory, but you think there are 32 former MLB umpires that are physically capable, one per city that is available to work a game at the last minute?

Good luck with that policy. And would someone want to hang out with what they already make to hope and pray someone goes down just to work? And this is such a rare situation in the first place that I doubt this even would be worth it to have someone on constant hold.

Peace

Did MLB expand to 32 while I wasn't looking?

(PS - it would only take 25 - Balt/Wash; NY/NY; LA/Ana; ChC/ChW; SF/Oak, but other than that I completely agree in principle - would rather go with 3 than have someone no longer active out there.)