Official Scoring and Replay

[RedsManRick]

Two birds, one stone: Add a 5th umpire to the standard crew rotation who serves as the replay administrator and official scorer for the game.

On whatever plays are appropriate, he'd have immediate access to all video feeds and could provide a booth reviewed response via an earpiece to the home plate umpire upon request. The umpire would not have to leave the field, could be resolved in less than 30 seconds, and the process would be completely invisible to the fans.

The same ump would also serve as an independent arbiter for scoring decisions, eliminating the bias which often is driven by the stats of the home team.

The position would be part of the rotation umpires currently have. It adds another 15-16 full time jobs for the umpires (pleasing the union) and resolves a number of problems. Seems like there's no downside. Am I missing anything?

[nate]

It creates an odd man out for Bridge.

[Razor Shines]

It creates an odd man out for Bridge.

That's an incredibly odd way to spell Euchre.

[Spring~Fields]

Two birds, one stone: Add a 5th umpire to the standard crew rotation who serves as the replay administrator and official scorer for the game.

On whatever plays are appropriate, he'd have immediate access to all video feeds and could provide a booth reviewed response via an earpiece to the home plate umpire upon request. The umpire would not have to leave the field, could be resolved in less than 30 seconds, and the process would be completely invisible to the fans.

The same ump would also serve as an independent arbiter for scoring decisions, eliminating the bias which often is driven by the stats of the home team.

The position would be part of the rotation umpires currently have. It adds another 15-16 full time jobs for the umpires (pleasing the union) and resolves a number of problems. Seems like there's no downside. Am I missing anything?

I think that is a great idea, well thought out, you need a channel to submit that idea.

I wonder about the money side for the fifth ump?

[fearofpopvol1]

I think that is a great idea, well thought out, you need a channel to submit that idea.

I wonder about the money side for the fifth ump?

I think that's the issue. MLB won't want to pay another person.

[RedsManRick]

At most it costs MLB a few million bucks, including salaries, travel, benefits and training. It's hardly chump change, but something on the order of a tiny slice out of the revenue sharing pie. Then again, since when has MLB put the best interests of the game ahead of revenue...

[remdog]

:p:
Two birds, one stone: Add a 5th umpire to the standard crew rotation who serves as the replay administrator and official scorer for the game.

On whatever plays are appropriate, he'd have immediate access to all video feeds and could provide a booth reviewed response via an earpiece to the home plate umpire upon request. The umpire would not have to leave the field, could be resolved in less than 30 seconds, and the process would be completely invisible to the fans.

The same ump would also serve as an independent arbiter for scoring decisions, eliminating the bias which often is driven by the stats of the home team.

The position would be part of the rotation umpires currently have. It adds another 15-16 full time jobs for the umpires (pleasing the union) and resolves a number of problems. Seems like there's no downside. Am I missing anything?

Ummm, well....it's redundent first of all. If they have an OFFICIAL scorer then what (s)he rules should be well, OFFICIAL. These people see hundreds of games every year and they view it exclusively from a scoring standpoint every game. Rotate a 5 man umpire crew and they are observing from that unique viewpoint only 20% of the time. No point in that.

Personally, I don't think that the official scoring is all that bad. I do think that there are some posters on here at this particular time that have a personal disagreement with a few calls and are lashing out and making this an issue which, over the long haul, it isn't, IMO. I see plays called one way or the other that I disagree with quite frequently. But, hey, I'm sitting in my living room, relaxing with a cold one and I don't really care three minutes later. (famous shrug). Of course, if it makes a difference on my fantasy team then that's different. Oh yeah, ........I've never been involved in a fantasy league which, once again IMO, has jaded many from enjoying the game for the play vs concentrating on the numbers first (which, of course, is affected by 'official scoring').

In the end, I blame this whole issue on 'American Idol'. There is no way that the American public should be able to vote on something as inane as that show----and this issue falls even below that show's 'Mendoza Line'. :p:

Rem

[Strikes Out Looking]

Interesting. I was at the Nats-Braves game Saturday night and saw two clear errors committed; however neither got charged.

[Chip R]

Usually the official scorer is some kind of writer. And if there's any group you don't want to make angry it's the writers. If one of their own is squeezed out of a job like this, they will raise ten kinds of hell.

[Roy Tucker]

Usually the official scorer is some kind of writer. And if there's any group you don't want to make angry it's the writers. If one of their own is squeezed out of a job like this, they will raise ten kinds of hell.

I think they phased out the newspaper writer as official scorer sometime in the 80's. Something about a conflict of interest.

Glenn Sample and Ron Roth have been the official scorers for the Reds that last 29 years. I think they do a good job, but also I think almost every official scorer has a hometown bias.

[bucksfan2]

I think they phased out the newspaper writer as official scorer sometime in the 80's. Something about a conflict of interest.

Glenn Sample and Ron Roth have been the official scorers for the Reds that last 29 years. I think they do a good job, but also I think almost every official scorer has a hometown bias.

I remember back when Ryan Sandberg was playing for Chicago. He had some kind of errorless streak going that was fueled by the very generous scoring by the Cubs.

Glen Sample has been with the Reds for a long long time. I heard him on the radio and he said the official scorer has 24 hours to change any call of the game. It is true that some scorers can be biased but thats just part of the game.

As for the CC play I think the correct scoring is a base hit on that play. Its the same with a 3b charging and having to bare hand a ball. If they miss the bare hand is that an error? If CC slips and falls down is that an error or base hit?

[RedsManRick]

As for the CC play I think the correct scoring is a base hit on that play. Its the same with a 3b charging and having to bare hand a ball. If they miss the bare hand is that an error? If CC slips and falls down is that an error or base hit?

It's one thing when even if the 3B fields in cleanly it's going to be close. He's rushing to bare-hand the ball out of necessity. But CC could easily have fielded it with his glove and thrown out the runner by 2 full strides.

If there's a grounder to 2B and the 2B tries to bare-hand it and drops it, that doesn't make it a hit. CC misplayed a ball that most often would have been converted to an out. That's an error.

[Chip R]

I haven't seen the play but if it's an error, it's an error. It shouldn't be based on whether or not a no hitter was going on.

[Roy Tucker]

I'm not 100% convinced that a 5th umpire wouldn't suffer from the same hometown bias that official scorers are. I think calls that umpires make are affected by the home crowd.

I'd say over the last 10-15 years, the standard of a hit has changed. There are a lot of fielding plays called hits that I'd call errors. I know there has traditionally been a lot of contention between players and official scorers. As the amount of money players has skyrocketed, the monetary importance of those decisions has increased.

In Sunday's Reds-Giants game, Votto hit a ball to LF that the Giants' leftfielder staggered around on (trouble with the sun I think) and it finally clanked off his glove. They scored it as a double (after some deliberation). I thought it was a clear error, the ball should have been caught.

[OnBaseMachine]

I think today was a pretty good example of why MLB needs to hire their own official scorers. Most of these guys are a joke, especially the one in Colorado. Today was embarrassment. (1) Bailey bobbled a groundball back to the mound -ruled a hit. (2) Groundball to Phillips, he side steps it instead of getting in front of the ball and botches it - Ruled a hit. (3) Groundball back to Bailey, he throws it into right field - ruled a hit. Hilarious. Bailey got charged with an ER and two, possibly three hits that should have been errors. Like Chris Welsh said, it's surprising every Rockie hitter isn't batting .400 with an official scorer like that.

I won't even get started on the home plate umpire today. If you don't throw the ball right down the middle at the waist then it's a ball.