Jon Johnson sat in for Joe DeCamara on WIP on Monday. He and Jon Ritchie joined most Philadelphians in bemoaning the work of Sean Barber, the umpire behind the plate in the Phillies’ Sunday loss to the Cincinnati Reds. That led to a poll of the audience: are you in favor of robot umpires?
Jon Ritchie did not mince words. He was very clear. It is time to get the humans out of there.
“I could not be more in favor of robot umpires. Why can’t we just get these calls right? The robot umpire, what’s the harm? Let’s get the calls right. We have the technology to do so. At this point, in my mind, it’s just the old fuddy-duddies, who are stuck in the past, who want to stay with getting it wrong.”
Barber’s inconsistent strike zone was the subject of a lot of ridicule online. It also led to Nick Castellanos being ejected for arguing balls and strikes. That was at the root of Johnson’s argument for why the human element is worth keeping in baseball officiating.
Johnson argued that baseball has worked so hard to scrub itself of personality. The only time fans are guaranteed to see someone getting excited in any way is when a manager comes out to argue with an umpire. Eliminating one side of that argument would be a real bummer.
Major League Baseball certainly has a problem with keeping the attention of a younger audience. It is hard to imagine that continuing tolerate truly awful officiating is going to change that.
