MLB Umpire Suffers Public Humiliation After ABS Overturns His Calls
This is called accountability, boys and girls.
I’ve long called for MLB umpires to be held accountable for making terrible calls – of which they do all the time – and it seems like 2026 is finally setting up to be the Year of Accountability.
I don’t want people fired … although that’s probably coming. I don’t want the robots to completely take over … although that’s definitely coming. I just want some accountability for when they are terrible at their jobs.
Last season, I proposed a rule in which an umpire is ejected from the game if his call turns out to be wrong. I don’t just want the call overturned. I was the ump thrown out of the game. Eye for an eye.
Now, MLB hasn’t quite gone that extreme this season. Not yet, at least. But, they are introducing ABS – the automated system that will correctly overturn balls and strikes when the batter/catcher asks for it.
There are certainly kinks we need to work out – the process takes way too long – but, I must say, I like what I’m seeing so far this spring training:
What a tough day at the office for this cat
That’s the good stuff right there. Instant accountability. This is what I want. Either do your job correctly, or you’re going to be humiliated multiple times throughout the game. Be better. Do better. Or risk public humiliation. It’s as simple as that.
And this was just a spring training game! Imagine what the crowd is going to sound like in Philly when this poor bastard misses a crucial call in October for the fourth time in six innings. He will be raked over the coals. It’ll be a bloodbath.
Now, this is going to piss some folks off, too. The baseball purists are going to say this is taking the human element out of the game. They will argue that part of what makes baseball great is the human error aspect to it.
And I do agree with that … to an extent. For example, I think it’s silly when a call at second is overturned because the runner’s pinkie came off the bag when he was clearly safe otherwise. I think that’s a little nit-picky. If the initial tag is late, the runner should be safe. Analyzing it like the Zapruder film is ridiculous.
But when it comes to balls and strikes … I just can’t defend it anymore. Umpires have become so bad over the past few years. Some of the calls they make – or miss – are just indefensible. If this makes them better at their jobs, then I will take it.
Frankly, though, this will eventually take their jobs entirely. We all see it, right? I’d imagine they see it. This is just the first step.
AI is coming for all of us, folks. I just wish Angel Hernandez was still in the league to see it.
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