Umpire knows his stuff, semi-pro team not so much

Now that I have had some time to digest umpiring 18 innings of semi-pro baseball yesterday and collected my thoughts a pertinent rationalization, analogy became too obvious. 

Our occupation is an exact replica of the judicial system all wrapped up in one job, an umpire. 

First, we are the policeman on the baseball field, but instead of looking for crime breakers, we are on the lookout for rule breakers.  When we see a rule being broken, recognizing it and bringing that rule violation to everyone’s attention is our job. 

Second, we become the prosecutor. One, we take into consideration what we saw, two we take into consideration what the rule book says. We then make a ruling “prosecution” based upon what we saw, what the rule book says and all other pertinent known facts. 

Third, we are the jury. Our job as umpire demands that we understand the rule infraction and give the final verdict of guilty or not guilty to the appropriate player/team.

Finally, we are the judge. Once the rule infraction has been verified beyond a reasonable doubt, we impose final sentencing.

The legal system can take fifteen to a hundred people, months, sometimes years to conclude a case. It has taken me approximately twenty minutes to compose this information, and it could take between two to three minutes for you to read it. The reason why these things are worth mentioning is that as an umpire, we make a call and determine a ruling in seconds. The enforcement can take as little as 10 seconds but frequently can take up to 5 minutes or more to resolve.

Umpires’ ability to correctly recognize, process, call, and enforce a ruling during a game quickly is an incredible skill, a skill that is often ignored or taken for granted. This is odd particularly considering how high a percentage of rulings are called correctly, but I also understand why it is a one-sided recognition.