If I Were An Angels, Red Sox, Twins, or Tigers Fan Right Now I'd Be So Pissed

I was going to write about all of the horrible calls we've seen in the past week, and about how Major League Baseball needs a real instant replay system and probably computerized home-plate umpiring as well, but hey--it looks like Jeff Passan has done it already. Makes my job easier. I'll just throw in a few notes as well:

-Passan doesn't even mention the bizarre catcher's interference call that went against the Angels in Game 1 of the ALDS. That one, in its own way, is the most perplexing. I can understand misjudging something like a play at first base or a foul ball, but on a completely clean swing that is no different from the thousands of other completely clean swings an umpire sees over the course of a season, what would cause him, apropos of nothing, as it turns out, to declare one such play catcher's interference?

-Passan quotes Joe Nathan: “I wasn’t the only one who blew one tonight."I'm of the opinion that people who live in glass houses that were just shattered by epic, save-blowing, game-tying home runs by Alex Rodriguez shouldn't really throw meatball-style, grooved-right-down-the-middle-of-the-plate stones. You're a postseason goat, Joe Nathan, and you should stop throwing other people under the bus.

-Passan also quotes Nick Punto on whether we need to use technology to help us out: “That’s a sticky situation. I really like the human element part of the game. Where does it end? Maybe one day there’s robots back there umpiring, and that’s no fun.”

Not many people know this, but Nick Punto actually hates playing baseball--he just loves loves LOVES the umpiring. It's so much FUN for him. When he's at the plate, and takes a called strike at the knees that was probably a little bit low, he calls time just so he can turn around and shake the umpire's hand, thanking him for making this great game so much fun. If that questionable call happens to cost his team a game, he takes the umpire out for a beer afterward.

Seriously, though, this is an argument I never got--the argument that umpires are a traditional part of the game, so we should keep them. That's true, they are part of the game--but does anybody really LIKE that they're part of the game? 99.99% of the times that we actually notice umpires, it's because we think they made a bad call. Why is that a tradition we want to preserve? It's confusing.