Umpire Incompetance

I watch many baseball games over the course of the season as well as most of the playoff and World Series games. I've followed baseball very closely for over 25 years and I continued to be amazed at the arrogance of the Major League umpires. Granted there are some very good ones, however if you look at the collective group their incompetence amazes me. Tonight's Twins vs. Royals game provided a prime example. Home plate umpire Larry Vanover ignored the fact that Kubel hit a foul ball off of his shoe or leg protector and allowed Kubel to be called out at first base. Replays with sound clearly proved it hit Kubel in the batters box. When Gardenhire asked Vanover to ask the third base umpire whether it hit Kubel in the batters box, Vanover refused. As expected Vanover ejected Gardenhire for having the audacity to question him. The situation even got more pathetic for Major League baseball when crew chief Charlie Reliford finally wandered up to home plate. Instead of being the "leader" he's paid to be and make the foul ball call, he started yelling at Gardenhire. In the end this was yet another example of the umpires covering each other's ass instead of getting the call right.

Baseball commissioner Bud Selig faces quite a delima with the advent of state of the art technology. High Definition TV, sensitive field mics, and the k-zone have finally exposed the incompetance of the umpires. Mr. Selig, are you even remotely interested in improving the quality of the game?