AN UMPIRE MAKE HIS RATING KNOWN. I have urged in several posts, including here, that the grading of the performance of sports officials should be made public. Now an umpire has made his rating for a game public. Umpire Bob Davidson was criticized by pitcher Ted Lilly for a game in which had been the plate umpire. Lilly told Davidson to “concentrate.” This article in the Chicago Tribune tells the story: “[Davidson said:] “I just found out I scored just about a 96 [out of 100] on my plate job, so my concentration was pretty [darn] good in my opinion.”
MLB umpiring supervisors grade umpires on a daily basis after reviewing videotapes.
Davidson said out of 215 pitches Monday, he was told he’d missed 10.
“Eight of them were pitches I called strikes that shouldn’t have been,” he said. “The other two, one went against Pittsburgh and one went against Chicago. My concentration was excellent.”
A grade can be a protection for an umpire. Hopefully, this kind of thing will happen more frequently.