By Robert Whiting (2009)
As many of you vividly recall, Ichiro Suzuki was thrown out of a game late in the season for arguing a called third strike, the first ejection in his entire baseball playing career. According to present MLB custom, it is absolutely forbidden to argue judgement calls—which include called balls and strikes—so home plate umpire Brian Runge was perfectly justified in what he did. In fact, Ichiro had added insult to injury by drawing a line in the dirt next to home plate to indicate that the ball was a full 3 inches outside the strike zone. This insolent demonstration, another breach of MLB etiquette toward umpires, doubly justified Runge’s ejection order.
What struck me as curious about the incident, however, was why Ichiro argued about that particular pitch. According to a computer system known as PITCH/fx, which analyzes called balls and strikes and which has been shown to be accurate within a margin of less than half an inch, the pitch which Ichiro found so objectionable was actually right on the corner of the strike zone. It caught the outside of the plate by two millimeters before sliding away. Surely, any other umpire in MLB would have called it a strike.
Moreover, it is commonly believed that umpires are prone to giving the benefit of the doubt to pitchers on any given pitch on the edge of the strike zone, because they want to speed up the games and force the batter to hit the ball. (In Japan, by contrast, it seems the opposite is true.) As an umpire from America recently explained it to me, even a ball that barely misses the outside of the zone has to be a strike; the object is to keep the game moving.
Of course, in the Ichiro episode, you could make the argument that Ichiro is such a great hitter that the mere fact of him not swinging at a pitch would be good enough reason to call it a ball—out of respect. An “Ichiro ball,” so to speak. Maybe that was why Ichiro was mad. But that is another matter. Normally Ichiro would swing at a pitch near the plate whether it was in or out of the strike zone; that is his style. After all, he once hit a pitched ball on the bounce while playing for Orix. In fact, one Mariners fan, a computer enthusiast, has estimated that the cost of not swinging at a pitch like that in a situation like that—in which he became the second out of the inning with a runner on third base—cost the Mariners something like 0.6 runs on average.
I think what Ichiro was angry about was probably MLB umpires in general. This year, more and more people have been complaining about the quality of umpiring. They will tell you that it has deteriorated in recent years. And I’m sure that Ichiro is no exception.
Of course, umpires have always made mistakes; it’s just that now we have the technology to catch them at it. We have imaging so improved that we can see the scuff marks on the ball and the pimples on the pitcher’s cheeks. We have advanced technology like QuesTec which can analyze and evaluate the accuracy of every single one of the 150 calls an umpire makes during a game. We have slow motion cameras so sharp and sophisticated that they can track a bullet fired from a gun. Ergo, umpires’ errors become more apparent.
For example, there was a game this year in which a triple play took place that was not a triple play at all. With runners on first and third base with none out, the shortstop fields a ground ball, throws to second for one out, the second baseman throws to first for two outs, and then the first baseman throws home to get the runner coming in from third, for the third out. It was a great feat of fielding. However, slow motion video replay showed all three calls were wrong, and that everyone was safe.
Perhaps allowing each manager to have one or two challenges during the game—even on ball and strike calls—would restore the sense of balance. That’s the way things are done in the NFL and, to a lesser extent, the NBA. Unfortunately, it also lengthens the game.
But what compounds the problem is that MLB umpires these days have become bullies and make life miserable for anyone who complains. Umpires these days in MLB have much quicker tempers than there used to be. Often, it is the umpire who starts the argument, not the player who may be merely asking a question. For example, a question like “Say ump, how many inches outside the strike zone was that pitch?” may often result in an ejection. This provides quite a contrast to Japan, where it is the managers, coaches and players who are the bullies and the umpires the victims.
Perhaps this new shift is because the umpires want more TV face time now that every single pitch of every game is captured on video via the new MLB-TV network and MLB.com. Perhaps it is because of the strong umpires union that has given them a sense of entitlement. Who knows the reason, but there is a sense of arrogance that did not used to be there—and is not evident in the NFL and NBA, where there is a convivial atmosphere among players and officials.
But that is the state of affairs in the MLB.
And for the foreseeable future, we can expect to see more normally calm, cool and collected players like Ichiro lose their cool.
Tokyo Junkie 