UMPIRES AS BUREAUCRATS.

UMPIRES AS BUREAUCRATS. I posted earlier in the week about the controversy over a veteran umpire’s harsh criticism of the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees because they take too long to play their games. This article confirms my suggestion that the umpires are caught in the middle. The commissioner’s office wants games to be quicker and it is leaning on the umpires to lean on the players to accomplish that. Umpires are being placed in a position that bureaucrats are often in. Higher-ups want a policy carried out that may be controversial (I don’t really think that a lot of people are upset about Yankee-Red Sox games being too long or networks wouldn’t be so eager to carry those games). Management puts on some kind of grading system or paperwork to pressure the bureaucrats (the article suggests that umpires are “weary of writing and submitting reports they feel are largely ignored.”) When the controversial policy results in controversy, it is the bureaucrat in the middle who gets the criticism.