Comments on: Of Judges and Umpires

By: Xrlq

Xrlq — Sun, 16 Oct 2005 06:41:10 +0000

Chris: the best umpires don’t work for the American League. Same goes for American courts.

By: Xrlq

Xrlq — Sun, 16 Oct 2005 06:40:39 +0000

Sean: Good Lord, you’re right. Although I do have to quibble with the bit about the fans having booed the umps generally. They didn’t. They booed Doug Eddings in a big way, and were customarily silent vis a vis the rest. From our seat just to the right of right field, it looked like Eddings (who was in left field, literally as well as figuratively) had extra security.

Unfortunately, they don’t show instant replays in the stands, so I was “blissfully” ignorant of how bad these calls were. From our seats they looked close, but not unambiguously bad – unlike the Angels’ playing, which was.

By: Christopher Cross

Christopher Cross — Sun, 16 Oct 2005 06:11:07 +0000

The best umpires are those that, at the end of the game, you didn’t even realize were there.

Same goes for judges.

By: Sean M.

Sean M. — Sun, 16 Oct 2005 02:22:06 +0000

If there were any lingering doubts about what happened in game 2, I think tonight’s game has proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that this series has featured the worst officiating in postseason history. If the White Sox win the World Series, they’d better give some rings to the ALCS umpiring crew.

By: steve sturm

steve sturm — Fri, 14 Oct 2005 20:03:26 +0000

One reason I didn’t like Roberts viewing himself as an umpire is that every umpire has his own version of what is and what isn’t a strike… just as every judge seems to have their own view of what is and what isn’t constitutional.

Umpires are also notoriously inconsistent when calling balls and strikes, they seem to make things up as they go along…. just like judges who can follow precedent or discard it depending on whether it supports or doesn’t support the position they want to take.

Baseball umpires also are very short-tempered when being criticized by others (look how fast the umpiring establishment rallied around Edding after he made a mess of things, and how fast players and managers questioning calls can get tossed from the game)…. just like judges who don’t cotton to us common folk criticizing them for their mucking things up.

And you don’t need to pay more money to see overweight guys with inflated egos make an ass of themselves… just look around you while you’re at the games next week…. you’ll see plenty of them.