How Baseball Umpiring Has Changed Over the Years

By Guest
Updated: April 30, 2017

Baseball has a very long history in the United States of America and its roots as one of this country’s favourite pastimes goes right back to the early 1800s. Baseball was initially a British game involving a pitcher lobbing a ball at a striker, who swung a flat stick in an attempt to hit the ball. The rules were written in 1837 by Alexander Cartwright of New York’s Knickerbocker Club, and these have lead the game to the one known and loved today.

The umpire is the person who officiates the game, and is in charge of both starting and ending it, enforcing the rules and grounds, judging plays, and overseeing and handling any disciplinary actions as may be required. The days the term has been colloquially shortened to ump, and umps are sometimes also known as blues, at lower levels, thanks to the fact that blue is the colour of their uniforms.

Professionally, the world blue is no longer much used by players or managers, who rather address the umpire by name, and the biggest change in the umpire’s original role is that the job of officiating is now most often divided amongst several umpires, forming a crew, rather than just being managed by one.

The Use of Tech to Monitor the Game and Make Decisions

Since technology has developed and been introduced to the game, it has changed at almost all levels. For example, video tech started being used in 2002, and these days is used to monitor pitch speed, break and locations. Between the years 2002 and 2014, video replay was limited outside of the plate, and only calls which disputed home runs were assessed. However, as of the season of 2014, the use of video replay has expanded, and now managers of teams are able to issue one challenge per game for video replay. This has helped punters who enjoy sports betting in NZ and the rest of the world to ensure that they are getting the fair play they need in order to enjoy their betting processes.

Technology and Umpire Calls in Baseball

Tech is also used in order to assess umpire calls, and this has resulted in these becoming far more accurate. Before the use of Pitch f/x, a camera which is used to appraise umpire calls at the plate, umps had an average accuracy of around 83%. As of 2013, this accuracy is closer to 87%.

Baseball also continues to change in terms of its fan base: each generation of baseball players is better than the one before, and so infuse games with new energy. Although the specs and logistics of baseball have changed over the years, the thrill of hearing that crack of the bat on a warm summer’s night remains as exciting as it was over 100 years ago.

How the Rules Have Changed Over the Years

In today’s world of baseball, the called strike seems fundamental, and it is difficult to imagine a period where it simply didn’t exist. But the first versions of the game which developed from rounders and other sports involving balls and sticks have given far more important advantages to batters.

Pitchers were not only used to throwing underhand in the good old bad old days, but batters were also allowed to simply wait for the perfect pitch before even trying to swing. However, this bored so many players and spectators that the strike was among the first of the newer rules in place today passed at 1858’s first Baseball Convention.

As the years pass, baseball umpiring is sure to change even more, and the days of one man blowing a whistle and controlling the game are long gone.