The umpires in the Braves vs. Phillies game have been under fire for their controversial call at home plate. Alec Bohm for the Phillies tagged up on a sac fly by Didi Gregorius, it was a bang-bang play at home making it tough to determine if he was safe or out. Through the replay footage, it shows that Bohm never touched home plate. The umpires on the other hand ruled him as safe causing fans to go on a frenzy. Trash was thrown on the field followed by much slander on social media towards the umpires. Is the game making the right calls even when there is slo-mo replay footage available for the staff? Is there a chance umpires can be replaced by technology?

There has been much conflict with umpires ruining the game, for example, the infamous umpire Angel Hernandez. He is well known around the league as one of the worst umpires in the league, so why doesn’t the MLB find an alternative? The best reason as to why is that umpires bring excitement with their bad calls. If baseball games had perfect strike zones it would open a whole new dynamic of the game making it less entertaining. There wouldn’t be any more yelling at the umpire or players getting tossed, tarnishing the real gameday feel. So looking back at the Braves game it may have been a terrible call, however, there was so much to talk about as a fan giving them more reasons to watch ball games.

Photo by The Spun.