Coco Crisp was ejected for having a tantrum over a called third strike. The real story here is why someone that was born in 1939, the same year Ted Williams was a rookie, is still allowed to make that terrible call. In Bruce Froemming’s MLB Official bio, he states he remembers watching the 1948 World Series. How can MLB let someone this old still control the game? If a player’s reactions deteriorate over time don’t you think an umpire’s do as well? Did you know that of the 70 MLB umpires that are on the official roster there are 26 that are over 50 years old? Every strike that Froemming called on Crisp was outside the zone, but the umpire does not have any performance evaluations that he needs to meet to stay in the game. What happened to Questec? Does baseball still use this in 2007? How many parks is it used in? Baseball has been really quiet on this subject. What type of evaluation system is in place to measure the performance of a 68 year old umpire? What this really shows is that the WUA really has a monopoly on baseball. The fact that 50 young AAA umpires have been let go in the past decade, is proof that the established umpires have the power to keep their jobs, by eliminating younger more qualified umpires, by systematically letting them go each year.
Since 1922 baseball has lived under the immunity of the Antitrust exemption. At times Congress has tried to strip this exemption, but never succeeded. Maybe if they look into the deception, and cronyism, that is MLB umpires they will see that this group of AARP individuals, has really monopolized this profession. Being an umpire is not the same as being a Supreme Court Judge. It is not a lifetime position. There needs to be standards and guidelines that are followed. Those that are over 50, should move on to other careers. Being an umpire in the Big Leagues should have a limit, on how long your eyes, and reflexes are at the top of your profession. Either Congress should step in and end this monopoly, or baseball should set age limits on their own. If you can’t play the game past 50, why should you be allowed to call the game past that age?