What do you think of this article?

[OHUMP]

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/players--umpires-need-replay-now-more-than-ever.html

[Welpe]

The media needs to quit pretending the replay is going to magically fix everything, including umpire/player relationships.

[dumbdumb]

Umps Seeking A Fine Time With Players

On baseball.

December 23, 1996|By Jerome Holtzman.

This is the time for peace and goodwill to all men. So it is gratifying to report that Major League Baseball is entering into the spirit of the season. A summit meeting to improve player-umpire relations, twice postponed, has been rescheduled for late January.

"Our objective is to find a code of conduct that deals with discipline problems in a realistic manner," said Bud Selig, the baseball czar.

Bravo, exulted Bruce Froemming, a veteran National League umpire who not only knows the problems but how they can be solved.

"There are going to have to be suspensions, because fines don't mean anything," Froemming insisted. "A player making $5 million or $6 million a year is fined $500. It's a joke. That's tip money."

According to the Basic Agreement, players fined more than $500 can file a grievance. To avoid a hearing, most fines are $500 or less. It's the easy way out.

"Salaries are in outer space, but we're still operating as if it was 1950," Froemming insisted. "When an umpire is abused, the penalty should be the same as in the NBA."

Only last week, Charles Barkley was fined $7,500 and suspended for two games without pay when he poked a referee in the nose, drawing blood. Barkley's total financial loss, which included a two-game suspension without pay, will come to more than $114,000. Clyde Drexler, who touched an official in the same game, was suspended for one game and will lose more than $67,000.

Said Froemming: "Gary Sheffield was ejected six times last season. I'd be surprised if he had to pay more than $5,000."

According to Jerry Crawford, president of the Major League Umpires Association, a new schedule of fines was to have been addressed during the recently concluded player-owner negotiations on a new five-year contract.

"I don't think they touched it," Crawford said. "Every time I run into a league official or a general manager, they always say, `You guys are right. The penalties are too low. They've got to be increased.' But instead of taking the bull by the horns, they dance around it."

Crawford insisted the problem is not with the umpires or players.

"It's the league presidents," he said. "They don't want to deal with the players association."

Crawford also said baseball fans have been misled in the belief there are more rhubarbs today than in the past.

"My father (longtime NL umpire Shag Crawford) has told me, `We had arguments just like you have. The only difference is you didn't see it on television unless it was a donnybrook.' Now, every argument is on ESPN. The producers look for it. They say, `Oh, boy, this is good television.' "

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dd

The fines are still chump change and as Crawford's dad said, they had plenty of rhubarbs back then.

There have been other articles going back years where they say the umpire are getting more arrogant, combative, confrontational, etc., etc. Nothing new.

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Here's the old article where Froemming throws the catcher out over missing pitches. Of course it was something the catcher said, but the original cause was the catcher not catching the ball. I thought this also happened with a catcher when Charlie Williams was umpiring and had been hit several times and Froemming came down and did the same thing, but maybe it was just this Crawford one.

http://articles.chic...mpire-obscenity

and here is another old article below from the old days. watch out, the article comes in on page C5 but you have to scroll back sideways to get to page C1 to start the article. don not hit the page button at the top. enjoy.

http://news.google.c...pg=4157,6291844

[Lindsay]

The media brings up the umpiring "problem" every year and each time, it is allegedly worse than ever before. They cite extremely faulty statistics and use poor premises to support a flawed concept of change. If any serious journalist is looking for actual research into sports discipline and the umpire-player dynamic, I would refer them to actual comparative analysis.

It's akin to the characterization of epidemic violent crime, even though such crime has been significantly down compared to the late 20th century. Similarly, ejections have been significantly down since the early 2000s. The player/coach-umpire dynamic defines my website—when MLB adopted HR-related instant replay, for instance, ejections for HR/No HR calls did experience seasonal decreases from six to two—yet the reason for ejection shifted from arguing with an umpire's live judgment call to arguing with a computer/replay-confirmed play.