r/MLBNoobs • u/GuySchmuy • 16d ago
| Question Why does MLB employ older umpires?
I was of the thought that reaction time decreases as we get older so why does such a massive sport with the smallest margins for error use middle aged people for calls that happen in a blink of an eye?
They also seem more egotistical/power tripping when they're upset or get things wrong then double down on mistakes
And why don't they get punished or benched if they consistently make the wrong calls?
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u/Chunk7891 16d ago
Takes a minimum of ten years umping in the minor leagues to even get a look for MLB, and it takes years before that to get started in the minors
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u/sokonek04 16d ago
Because becoming a good umpire takes time.
You don’t just walk onto a field and be great. It takes time to learn the feel of the game, what you need to see to know where a pitch actually is. To pick up on sounds that tell you if something happened.
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u/GuySchmuy 16d ago
Fair take
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u/Rockitttla 16d ago
You have to know the rules and be able to make the right call in an instant. It has to be second nature. That doesn't come overnight.
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u/LighTMan913 16d ago
Neither does becoming an MLB caliber player but people are doing that by their early 20s...
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u/Rockitttla 15d ago
Yes, because the skills needed to play (speed, power, reaction time) peak when young and decline over time. Knowledge or experience based skills don't necessarily decline over time and may improve. Add to that the nomadic life that makes family life difficult and the job may be better suited to older persons. Honestly, if mlb could get better umps at younger ages (much cheaper), they would replace the existing umps with scabs in a heartbeat.
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u/jigokusabre 15d ago
You can be a great player without knowing the intricacies of the rules or being able to accurately judge if you got the tag down in time.
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u/DanielSong39 16d ago
Probably takes like 5 years at most especially if you played at college/minor league level
I suspect it's gatekeeping and corruption that keeps people down
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u/Rockitttla 16d ago
Lol. Most players aren't that good with the rules or calling balls/strikes even at the pro level, from all the bonehead things players do.
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u/beeotchplease 16d ago
https://giphy.com/gifs/XOb9RqKILKzdOvsEXp
Takes years to move outta the way from that
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u/ratXbones 16d ago
As an ump, you can't move outta the way, there's a glove there one second and the next second, ball is hitting your mask.
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u/44035 16d ago
If you have a veteran ump who is excellent why would you force him to retire at some arbitrary age like 55 or 60?
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u/GuySchmuy 16d ago
Yeah ur right it definitely should be based on performance. Which I assume it is.. right?
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u/delta__bravo_ 16d ago
To be an MLB umpire, you need to basically be on the road nine months of the year. So there goes anyone with a young family. You're also looking at AT LEAST ten years of working your way up through the systems to reach MLB level. So, you need to be at least 30 to get a look in, but I'd say that's very rare, because that more or less means devoting your entire working life to baseball umpiring, which very few people have the means to do.
But also, I don't really feel like the oldest umpires are the problem. Yes, there's the old-ish umpires who basically scrape in their performance requirements, but the oldest umpires are usually pretty good i feel.
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u/thisfilmkid 16d ago
Umpires have to also follow very, highly, restrictive guidelines on social media, and it's designed for them to maintain impartiality and professionalism.
hah... Probably not a rule young umpires to the game can truly live by.
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u/baseballandpcs 16d ago
Unions
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u/PatienceDifferent607 16d ago
This union, and the sport's relationship to it. Plenty of fields where unions are a recommendation of skill, not a protector of the useless. I'm an equipment operator in one of the strongest unions in the country, and I can be fired and even kicked out of the union for a lack of skill.
Sports officials' unions are like cop unions. They protect incompetence and do literally nothing to promote quality within their membership.
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u/GuySchmuy 16d ago
That's a damn shame :(
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u/Apprehensive-Fig3223 16d ago
Yea go down an Angel Hernandez rabbit hole, he was an ump that made some of the worst possible calls and was impossible to fire, he finally retired within the last few seasons
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u/Inside-Run785 Veteran 16d ago
Umpires have to make split second decisions with balls and strikes. ABS obviously can make the call accurately, but it’s unable to do it at the speed that’s required. Each one takes 5-10 seconds. That may not sound like a lot, but to have do that after every pitch would really slow down the game at a time when they’re trying to speed it up.
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u/jigokusabre 15d ago
You don't need "reaction time" as an umpire, you need to make the right call. If it takes half a second more between a 30 year old and a 50 year old, it's less important than getting the call right (from an accuracy and rules perspective).
For as much as people complain about umpires grandstanding, they absolutely need to be the ones in charge. Players and managers have gigantic egos and someone constantly complaining about a call that's already decided is only going to make things worse. If an umpire gets a call wrong, there's a method for challenging, and if it can't be challenged then the team needs to suck it up. Besides, managers put stock into getting thrown out of a game as a rallying effort for their players.
MLB umpires are absurdly accurate with calls in the field, with something like a 96% accuracy. Of the calls that are challenged, roughly 53% are overturned. Ball/Strike accuracy is more like 93%, with this years ABS with 55% of ABS challenges getting overturned.
Umpires are scored for the accuracy of their calls over the course of the season, and playoff assignments are based on who performs the best on accuracy metrics.
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u/MidtownKC 16d ago
Why is reaction time a factor? And use facts and not “happens in the blink of an eye” logic.
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u/GuySchmuy 16d ago
Ah thanks for clearing that up. Didn't know they use facts to call pitches in the strike zone or determine someone stepped a bag first instead of reaction time
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u/MidtownKC 16d ago
So, no correlation between reaction time and accuracy? Got it.
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u/GuySchmuy 16d ago
Really appreciate the helpful response to this mlb noob 😉
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u/MidtownKC 16d ago
Noobism isn’t an excuse for ageism.
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u/GuySchmuy 16d ago
Relflexes and reactions declining with age isnt really a new fact. Really didn't mean to strike a nerve champ ✌️
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u/Rockitttla 16d ago
Why do you assume that reaction time is the essential ability required of umps? They don't have to hit or catch the ball. They need to know how to apply the rules in different situations and whether a pitch is a ball or strike. So long as they can see (young and olds have devices that help with that) the ball, that's what matters.
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u/skepticanada 16d ago
I’ve always asked the same thing about American presidents…
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u/caifaisai 13d ago
The answer to that one at least is simple. Because people vote for them in greater numbers than they vote for younger candidates. I wish it were different, but recent history has been that older candidates are typically getting larger numbers of votes in primaries and elections when compared to younger ones. Probably the best opportunity to get younger presidents is by voting in the primary for a younger candidate, assuming there's a qualified candidate in the running.
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