Frink: I Love the ABS!

Musings of an Aging Mind

By Jack Bagley

I knew this was coming, but I didn’t think he’d be ready so quickly.
The Major League Baseball season just got underway, and already the Baseball Curmudgeon who lives inside my head, Homer K. Frink, is bursting at the seams to speak out on a topic that is on the minds of a lot of fans. Mr. Frink watches a great number of games – being retired (from what I have no idea) he has little else to do – and he has been jumping up and down with excitement about his next commentary.
Well, doing as much jumping up and down as a man of his years can do.
All right, Mr. Frink, I’ll step aside and let you have the column space this week.  It’s the only way I’ll get any sleep.
Homer, you’re up.

Thanks. I couldn’t wait much longer for this one.
If you’re a regular reader of this stuff, you know how I feel about changes to my beloved game of baseball. I’m still on the fence about names on the backs of the uniforms, so you can imagine my thoughts on the other changes that have taken place over the past several decades.
I’ve watched my game go from nine men on a side, played outside in the daytime on grass, to having ten men on a side, played inside on carpeting. (Yes, I know that line isn’t original. I’d tell you to sue me but since I’m just a creation of this Bagley guy, I don’t have anything to take.)
I can’t stand the current Commissioner, Rob Manfred, and I hate what he’s doing to the game.
It took a long time for instant replay to win me over, but I grudgingly agree it’s necessary.
I still despise the “courtesy” or ghost runner on second base in extra innings.
But I absolutely love the ABS, or Automatic Balls and Strikes.
Especially when it makes a really bad umpire look … well, really bad.
The first weekend of the season was all I needed to see that the ABS is something sent from baseball heaven to make the game better. And it showed up one of the worst umpires in the game to boot.
For those who don’t watch the game of baseball (what the heck is wrong with you, anyway?), the ABS is simply an instant replay of a pitch.  If the umpire called it a strike and the batter thought it was outside the strike zone, he can ask for a review – but only a certain number of times in a game, and if the review doesn’t change the call, the team loses the challenge. The batter isn’t the only one who can ask, either.  
Should the ump call the pitch a ball, the catcher or pitcher can also ask that it be reviewed.
Which brings me to the game on Saturday, March 28, between the Cincinnati Reds and Boston Red Sox, and the man I currently consider the lousiest umpire in the Majors, one C.B. Bucknor.
The ABS system showed the world that Bucknor needs glasses if he expects to be taken seriously as an umpire any more.
Eight of his ball-strike calls were challenged, and six of them were overturned.  You should have seen the expression on his face after the back-to-back ones.
Reds’ third baseman Eugenio Suarez was at bat, with a two-strike count on him.  Bucknor called the next pitch a strike, but Suarez tapped his hat – the signal that he wanted the pitch reviewed.
Turns out Bucknor had missed it, and the call was overturned.
On the next pitch, Bucknor tried to ring Suarez up again, but again the Reds hitter tapped his hat.
And once again, ole C.B. was wrong.
Bucknor’s face was a study in frustration and embarrassment, as his inability to tell where the ball crossed the plate was placed on full display for the entire world to see.
And since the game was being played in Cincinnati, you know the Reds fans piled on the cheers each time Bucknor’s calls were overturned.
The Red Sox tried to get even later in the game with a requested review, but they were out of challenges and Bucknor’s lousy call stood, and he got to eject the Red Sox manager Alex Cora for arguing the call.
Bucknor’s been an ump in the Majors since 1999 and, let’s face it, he’s consistently judged one of the worst. The ABS system is just going to show how bad he and others like him really are.
His overall consistency at the plate was rated at 91% – not bad, but not stunning.  His overall accuracy was set at 88%, which is somewhat troublesome at the major league level.
But C.B. Bucknor showed that day he wouldn’t know a strike if it bit him – he only called 72% of them right.
C.B. Bucknor is making Angel Hernandez look like a good umpire.  And he wasn’t.