crushr13 Loc: Sacramento, CA

I'm sorry, but I beg to differ with you. Watching games on TV, I see umpires regularly calling strikes on pitches that come nowhere near the plate or "defined" strike zone. They also regularly call balls for pitches that were clearly over the plate and "in the box". Also, umpires tend to be very inconsistent. But there are, fortunately, only a few umpires that seem to call balls and strikes differently for certain hitters, some good for them, and some bad for them.

I believe that those are the reasons that they keep threatening to use a "robot" umpire to call balls and strikes. To me, the calls are too inconsistent, and get worse when the game is on the line. It really is a shame. Consistently good umpiring used to be a trademark of baseball. But not anymore. At least not to me, I am sorry to say.

SteveR Loc: Michigan

Gotta agree with you. I had h.s. umps that were sharper. In my last h.s. game we played against Ted Simmons team. The next year he was in the majors with the Cardinals. When he retired, he'd set the record for most doubles by a catcher. Simmons was elected to the HOF two years ago. On his first at bat my pitcher threw a high inside pitch which Simmons jumped on for a double. Best swing I ever saw.

We got him to 1-2. He'd fouled off two low and away pitches. We decided to go for the edge. My pitcher couldn't have missed the corner by more than 1/16th of an inch. Simmons took all three. The ump called all three balls. Both Simmons and the ump had great eyes.

Simmons was elected to the HOF two years ago. When he retired he had the record for the most doubles by a catcher.