The Umpire Conspiracy
May 10, 2022 - There is something fishy happening with the umpires in Major League Baseball, and although we are only 31 games into the season, something seems off. To understand what I’m talking about we have to go back to January 2022 when Major League Baseball decided to activate robot umpires into Triple-A games for the 2022 season. Major League Baseball loves to test out new ways to make the game faster and just like everything else they come up with it, it will probably fade away only to be brought up as a joke years from now. Then, Sunday April 24th, 2022 happened.
On April 24th, 2022 the Milwaukee Brewers went up against the Philadelphia Phillies on Sunday Night Baseball. The Brewers were leading 1-0 in the bottom of the 9th inning when umpire Angel Hernandez made a crucial mistake, calling outfielder Kyle Schwarber out on a third strike. The pitch was clearly outside of the strike zone and resulted in Schwarber being ejected after letting the umpire Hernandez know his thoughts on how he called the game that night.
Since the Schwarber incident it seems like more and more umpires are getting calls completely wrong. Listen, I know all umpires are terrible. We as sports fans have been yelling at umpires and referees since the beginning of time. But, after one month of play these umpires have been tampering with the outcomes of baseball games!
The final straw happened in last night’s Oakland Athletics vs. Detroit Tigers game. The Athletics had a 2-0 lead over the Tigers in the bottom of the 9th inning. Umpire Nick Mahrley would miss 4 crucial calls (as seen below) leading to three strikeouts with two runners on base. to end the game. It is understandable that umpires miss calls, but in the bottom of the 9th inning with an opportunity to tie or even win the game! C’mon man.
5/9/2022 Athletics vs. Tigers Bottom of the 9th
With all of these blown calls late in ball games so early in the season, who knows how many more we will have to sit through for the rest of the year. Could this be the inner workings of Major League Baseball Commissioner’s office, in attempt to force robotic umpires for the future of the game? It looks to me like these umpires are trying to blow these calls to get teams and fans upset with them so they have no choice but to side with Commissioner Manfred and allow robotic umpires to enter the major leagues. Something fishy is going on and it won’t be the last time we see something happen like this during the 2022 season.