May 30, 2024, 2:00 p.m. ET
Adam Sternbergh Opinion Culture Editor
Ángel Hernández Made Baseball Great -- (edited)
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The retirement of Ángel Hernández, long reputed to be the worst umpire in baseball, was greeted by many baseball fans with unfettered glee. In an age when the strike zone is constantly displayed on TV and each pitch can be instantly measured for speed, movement and location, the notion of a human consistently misjudging balls and strikes can seem not just outdated but absurd. The outsize antics of certain umpires — presumably intoxicated by their own power — has long been a subject of fan exasperation, inspiring the derisive phrase “ump show.”
I admit I reacted to the Hernández news by watching a series of his most questionable calls, many of which made me laugh out loud. I’m not here to debate whether he was a good umpire; the data clearly indicates he was one of the least accurate.
But Major League Baseball needs fallible humans like Ángel Hernández. The ump show is as much an essential part of baseball as bone-headed errors, egregious showmanship or players angrily tossing a glove into the stands. The alternative scenario — in which baseball is adjudicated, flawlessly and bloodlessly, by machines — would make the sport less meaningful.
The Automated Balls and Strikes system, or A.B.S., is already in use in Triple-A, and the argument for embracing so-called robo-umps boils down to their accuracy. Yet the element of human judgment, as displayed by human umps, is as intrinsic to baseball as is the element of human skill, as displayed by the players. Players drop balls. They lose fly balls in the lights. They overrun bases or run through stop signals. All of this is part of the game. Blown strike calls, idiosyncratic strike zones and even flamboyantly performative umps are, and should be, a part of the game as well.
You might counter: But bad officiating adversely affects the outcome of the game. Yes, but so does bad playing. Also, it’s a game. The argument that technological proficiency should supersede human fallibility in all arenas is pernicious enough elsewhere in society, but it seems especially wrongheaded when it comes to sports, an entertaining but meaningless forum for human excellence and human foibles. There is a reason the most enduring examination of baseball’s allure ends with a mythically talented player striking out.
Infallible robot brain surgeon? Honestly, I can see the argument. Infallible robot umpires? No, thanks — I’ll take the ump show.
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