Expert: Tom Schott - 1/26/2006

Question
Dear Mr. Schott,

   (My previous question dealt with a science fair project in the form of an electronic softball base.)
   Thank you very much for your response. When it comes to major league games, I agree that the accuracy of the umpires would be at least 97% or above. I know that your profile says that you are an expert on the major leagues, but I was wondering if you had any opinion on the more minor leagues. The audience my base would be intended for would most likely be middle school, high school, or perhaps college level softball- leagues that would not have instant playback and sometimes would only have one umpire. I realize this is a difficult question, but if you have any specific opinions on the accuracy of umpires at these levels it would be very helpful. Thank you again.

~ Sarah


Answer
Sarah,

 Well, my opinion, for what it is worth would be that it's a law of nature that the lower in the minors you go, the more the quality of everything on the field diminishes, including umpiring. Although the job of a third base ump is boring the majors, not the mention the bore that foul line umping is during playoffs and Series, the more umps on the field, the more accurate the call of the game is likely to be. Now, if you put just one umpire on the field in a softball or baseball game, I think it's quite likely that he or she could miss about 30-50 percent of the calls on close plays. I don't think it would be less, no matter how good the umpire is. It would be physically impossible to be on top of everything all the time. As I said, that's just my opinion, for what it is worth, and I'm sorry it's so inexact, but there's no way of really telling on this. No data.

Tom