14%

When I watch baseball games, it drives me batty like Robert Townsend from the movie Hollywood Shuffle when I see a pitch that was clearly a ball called a strike or visa versa. My call is verified when the replay is showed, using the MLB cameras. Baseball purists just chalk it up to the human element. It wasn't until I read a couple of recent articles showing just how often these bad calls are made.

A recent study came out regarding just how accurate (or not) umpires ball-strike calls are made. For two seasons (2008 & 2009), more than 700,000 pitches were tracked in this survey. This data is from Major Leagues Baseball's own cameras that are used to evaluate it's umpires. The bottom line of this survey shows that umpires make the right call 86% of the time regarding pitches that are not swung at.

I wanted to say it that way only because I try to be glass half full kind of guy. Now for the dark side: that means that umps get the call wrong 14% of the time. 14%. For every 100 pitches that are not swung at, 14 of them were called incorrectly.

Let me give you purists some more of the human element.

• According to the survey, umpires were wrong (only) 13% of the time on pitches in the bottom of the ninth inning.
• Umpires were likely to call a strike outside of the strike zone for five time All-Stars such as Greg Maddox who were known for their accuracy.
• Let's put some color in it: Umpires were 10% less likely to expand the strike zone for Afro-American pitchers then for Caucasian pitchers.

Now, as always, when I rail on a point, I try to offer solutions. Simply put, cameras. While I'm not saying it will eliminate this issue, the error rate will be better than 14%.

Now I'm not trying to eliminate the umpires entirely. My major concern regarding athletic competition is to get the call right. Is that too much to ask?