Make Umpires Accountable

Ángel Hernández

My grandmother was a fan of the Brooklyn Dodgers from the 1930s until they moved in 1957, and then of the Mets from 1962 until her death in 2006. There were things in baseball that ticked her off. One of these was the umpires "getting too big for their britches." She agreed with the idea that "Nobody ever bought a ticket to see an umpire."

Still, there have been umpires who continue to make bad calls, and not improve themselves, for the simple reason that no one holds them accountable. Bruce Froemming and Joe West may be retired, but Ángel Hernández, C.B. Bucknor and Laz Diaz are still out there. 

I propose new rules for umpires. Make it similar to card accumulation for soccer players:

1. Every 3 calls overturned by instant replay, 1 week's suspension.

2. If that happens twice in one season, the 1st week back, he's in Triple-A before returning to the majors. Call it a "rehab assignment."

3. If it happens 3 times in a year, 5 times in 3 years, or 7 times in 5 years, you're fired.

4. All ball & strike calls will be reviewed next day. If an umpire misses more than 10 percent of the calls in a game, Condition 1 is applied, and included with subsequent offenses.

Here's one that's very important to me:

5. No player may be fined for arguing with an umpire. That's a violation of a player's freedom of speech.

And finally...

6. If an umpire throws a player out of the game, and if it turns out that the player was right and the umpire was wrong, then, before the next game, umpire must apologize to the player over the public address system. After all, he deserves the humiliation.